A diagram of a nuclear engine in a submarine
Posted on 05/03/2010 2:29:49 AM PDT by ErnstStavroBlofeld
Two British nuclear submarines went to sea with a potentially disastrous safety problem that left both vessels at risk of a catastrophic accident, the Guardian can reveal.
Safety valves designed to release pressure from steam generators in an emergency were completely sealed off when the nuclear hunter killers Turbulent and Tireless left port, a leaked memo discloses.
The problem went undetected on HMS Turbulent for more than two years, during which time the vessel was on operations around the Atlantic, and visited Bergen in Norway, the Portuguese capital, Lisbon, and Faslane naval base near Glasgow.
It was not noticed on HMS Tireless for more than a year, and was finally detected last month, two months after Tireless started sea trials from its home port at Devonport naval base in Plymouth.
Tireless was involved in another serious incident in 2007, when two submariners were killed in an onboard explosion in air purification equipment. In 2000, it was stranded in Gibraltar for nearly a year after a leak from pipework leading from its reactor, putting immense strain on British relations with Spain.
The Ministry of Defence memo, which was written last week, admits that both cases involving the sealed-off valves were "a serious incident" that raised major questions about "weak and ambiguous" safety procedures at Devonport dockyard and within the Royal Navy.
(Excerpt) Read more at guardian.co.uk ...
I don’t see any relief (”popoff”) valve (plugged or not...) in that diagram. You want to go to sea with that plant?
Whole lotta people blazing their valve line-ups
Unless these boats had a helluva lot of primary-secondary leaks, however, the article overstates the danger of spreading contamination from the secondary loop. In other words, their consultant on nuclear safety is full of bravo sierra.
“The nuclear reactors on both vessels were allowed to be turned on..”
Who writes this crap, a fifth grader? Also, I agree with one of the earlier posts. The “consultant” doesn’t know jack about submarines or Navy reactors (British or American).
That is not a P&ID (Piping and Instrumentation Diagram) It is a ‘block diagram’ of major components.
And yes, that plant is seaworthy. While people can make mistakes (or as noted below, ‘blaze off’ lineups), that does not mean the plant is faulty.
Where’s the screen door for smoke breaks?
Their Air detectors would have cought a pri/sec leak np. The issue would be blowing a boiler because the reliefs are blocked off.
And as noted, these valves are on every pre-crit lineup. That means at least two people, on every startup screwed it up (or torched)for two years.
The secondary reliefs are most likely needed for a load rejection and secondary overpressurization, not for PRI-SEC leakage.
Not having the secondary reliefs available when you loose load which on a NUC submarine would be the electrical Turbine Generators and the main engine would lead to both primary and secondary overpressurization. The primary reliefs would have worked, not desirable but no big deal in the grand scheme of things.
That wasn’t what I was going for, but yes you are correct.
Although I had a casualty where the o/s on both ME’s tripped and we didn’t lift the secondarys. I thought for sure it would happen, and was kind of surprised when it didn’t
Since the article was about relief valves, it would have been helpful if one were in the illustration. Otherwise, why waste the bandwidth on the diagram?
Well the diagram contains one detail I never knew.
Nuclear submarines are Priuses not GM Volts. At least with respect to their power transmission setup.
A sub reactor plant is very forgiving comparitively. I’m sure the RO was driving rods and you still had electrical load to limit secondary peak pressure.
Fortunately my worse causalty was a sleeper (compared to your loss of both main engine TGs) BUT the captain got a call from Rickover himself asking questions :-).
Patrols were years of bordom interupted with a few minutes of wild excitement.
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