Talk:Soviet submarine K-19

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Range

The Range given for K-19 seems odd, namely 35,700 miles at 26 knots but only 32,200 miles at 24 knots (80 percent power). Wouldn't range increase using lower power? Moriori 23:17, Nov 17, 2003 (UTC)

Isn't the K19 Nuclear-powered? Why the "short" range? NiceDoggie 12:02, 9 January 2007 (UTC)[reply]

It's not the fuel that limits the range, it's the amount of food - 50 days worth. 50 days at 26knots = 35,700 miles but at only 24 knots is 32,200 miles. dbdb 12:02, 15 August 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Purchase of K-19

Found this today: [1] What's the truth about it and should this be included?

Collision

I suggest to change "collided with USS Gato" to "collided with submarine USS Gato" JanSuchy 19:49, 23 October 2006 (UTC)[reply]

If you think that it makes it more clear, sure, be bold and do it - but what else would K-19 be colliding with, except a submarine, at 60m depth? Pawl 20:00, 23 October 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Nuclear reactor explosion possibility

Article says: "Even though a nuclear reactor accident cannot produce a nuclear explosion under any circumstances," -- OK, I understand this, but is it not true that a nuclear reactor that goes out of control can explode? Maybe it's not a nuclear explosion in the sense of a hydrogen bomb, but more like a so-called "dirty bomb". Like what happened in Chernobyl. I can imagine the submarine's captain being worried that a reactor explosion could be detected and spark a nuclear war, especially in the absence of radio contact with his superiors. --Smithfarm not logged in.

However, the worst that would happen is a large relese of radiation into the sea, that would hardly consitute a nuclear explosion. Because of this, I doubt that the captain would even be concerend about the reactor exploding and would be more concerned about the safety of his crew. The point is, reactors, while they can become large dirty bombs, will not become nuclear bombs and would not be considered as a nuclear bomb.

When a nuclear reactor "explodes", such as in the case of Chernobyl, it's due to a prompt- critical power excursion (see SL-1 for more information on that). In that situation, the chain reaction passes supercritical as large portions of the fuel undergo fission at the same time. The resulting release of energy in the form of heat causes the coolant to flash from liquid to gas instantaneously, and the pressure built up causes the reactor vessel (the part containing the core) to rupture. That was what happened at Chernobyl. The coolant flashed to steam fast enough to blow the reactor's closure head clear out of the containment building housing the reactor, and the highly reactive and radioactive graphite moderator caught fire from the heat and pressure shortly thereafter. There isn't any explosion like a nuclear bomb, per se, but radioactive materials are spread from the breach. As K-19 had already suffered an inisolable fast leak from the primary system, it's unlikely there was much (if any) coolant left circulating through the core to flash to steam. The main danger was the fact that Russian reactors operate with a positive coefficient of reactivity, meaning that as the temperature of the core rises, the fission rate is going to rise proportionally. While a prompt critical event would have occurred, it wouldn't have had any other effect than raising the already lethal background radiation levels even higher. The quickest and safest way to avert that problem would have been to evacuate and scuttle the boat; seawater is a natural moderator of neutrons, and would have slowed the chain reaction to the point where it would not have been able to sustain itself any longer past a certain point. I'm guessing that the decision to save the boat had more to do with politics and how the Northern Fleet would have handled the loss of one of its new nuclear submarines more than any percieved danger of starting World War III. Tspencer227 01:08, 11 November 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Purchase of K19

This is again a misrepresentation by the press. K-19 is scrap, however it is quite possible that other submarines of the Hotel Class are intact and could be made to represent K-19.

Contradiction with National Geographic article

On the NG site linked to the article, it says eight sailors died shortly after the return to port, not seven.--Cancun771 (talk) 16:40, 5 June 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Inconsistencies in article

A couple of inconsistencies should be addressed in the article as it stands right now. Unfortunately, I am not knowledgeable enough to do so, nor can I read the Russian source for one.

1) How many died in the aftermath of the 1961 incident? The "Nuclear accident" section (fourth paragraph) says "seven men ... within a week, and twenty more within the next few years..." The "Crew" section says "... these seven men died between one and three weeks after the accident... other crew members had ... fewer health problems." I would say that dying would be a pretty serious health problem (ahem), therefore the "Crew" section is saying that only seven of the crew died as a result of the incident.

2) When did the seven most contaminated men die? See excerpts quoted above - within a week or in one to three weeks? (A quibble, I admit.)

3) When did the nickname "Hiroshima" get attached? In the "Construction and commissioning" section, it states that "During its completion, commissioning, and preparations to get underway ... leading to the K-19's nickname Hiroshima." In the "Nuclear accident" section it states that after repairs were complete (1963?), "K-19 returned to the fleet, now having acquired the additional nickname "Hiroshima"."

It is not an article inconsistency, but the section "Crew" really isn't about the crew of the submarine as a whole, just those who lost their lives immediately after the 1961 incident. It should be expanded or retitled. (If the latter, it should be made a subhead under the "Nuclear accident" section.)

Pawl (talk) 18:17, 15 December 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Ok I imprroved an article a bit. In before sorry for my poor English but this has to be done I think. What about time when the boat first gained it's nick name - it's hard to find out. I never meet any mention about it in literature I have been read. But for my own opinion it is very probable that it gained it's nickname after the accident in 4 July. Anyway it brought so much deaths that this nickname could be given to it anytime, especialy because it was unofficial. Yegor (talk) 01:01, 18 February 2009 (+5 UTC)

Timeline part of this article is in bad english and needs an overhaul

I suspect it has been translated quickly from russian to english and there are lots of typos and sentences that doesn't look like proper english. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 84.208.212.38 (talk) 00:14, 1 February 2009 (UTC)[reply]