In b4 the gratuitous, largely uninformed wisecracks about the poor quality of Russian engineering!
Why is it a good thing to be in before that occurs ?
The K-152 Nerpa (Russian: К-152 «Нерпа») is a 8,140-tonne (8,010-long-ton) Project 971 Shchuka-B (NATO: Akula II) type nuclear-powered attack submarine. Construction was started in 1993, but suspended due to lack of funding. K-152 Nerpa was launched in October 2008 and entered service with the Russian Navy in late 2009. The submarine will eventually be leased to the Indian Navy in 2010 as recommissioned INS Chakra.Great engineering at work!While K-152 Nerpa was undergoing sea trials in the Sea of Japan on 8 November 2008, an accident caused the deaths of some twenty sailors and injury to twenty-one others. A fire suppression system discharged gas in the bow of the sub, suffocating civilian specialists and navy crew members.
“In Its First Trials the Submarine Nerpa Leaked at the Seams”. Komsomolskaya Pravda. 9 November 2008.
Great engineers.
Alexander Golts: This submarine was under construction for about 15 years. I was told at the Amur shipyard that they started to build it either in 1991 or 1993. The shipyard’s director was on the verge of tears as he told me that they had installed the nuclear reactor on the Nerpa but that he didn’t have the money to power up the reactor plant to anything over standard operating temperature. The boatyard had no finances to take the new submarine to the Russian Navy’s nuclear reactor facility at Bolshoi Kamen to test the full capacity of the reactor.
I am sure that most of the people who worked on building this submarine for 15 years were lacking experience, or had simply lost their skills. In the 1980s, this shipyard turned out submarines one after the other, like pancakes. But over the last 15 years they made just one—the Nerpa. The old specialists had left, the new ones lacked professionalism. I wonder if the crowd of engineers on board at the time of the accident were given oxygen masks at all.
http://www.newsweek.com/id/168382