Yet they repeatedly issued statements saying that the submarine was perfectly safe. Even more concerning, they told everyone that the problem was a crack in a weld which was only 2 millimetres across. The reality is that at the time they did not know how big the crack was. But just like the officials involved in handling the BSE crisis they were not prepared to say "we don't know".

The experts who are advising the Gibraltar government realised in August that there were two possibilities, either there was only a crack in a weld, or the crack extended into the main pipe. Surely the Ministry of Defence should have realised this as well ? It would appear that the MoD were only prepared to consider the more minor of the two options, and refused to countenance the more serious possibility. The officials and ministers who have been trying to reassure the public in Gibraltar and Spain are just as guilty of misleading them as were their counterparts over the BSE crisis.

The following drawing illustrates what was being proposed initially to repair the reactor on Tireless:

This is based on the assumption that the problem was only in the weld and that all that would need to be replaced was the weld and part of the small pipe above leading from the pressuriser. This repair would have involved partially draining the pipe below and so lowering the level of coolant in the pressure vessel.

The second drawing illustrates what may now be required. This is only speculation, but is based on what was said about the initial repair and recent statements in the British, Spanish and Gibraltar press. This assumes that the problem affects the main pipe itself and that part of the pipe would have to be replaced:

This suggest that the level of coolant would be lower than proposed in the initial repair and that work would be carried out closer to the pressure vessel containing the fuel core. Both of these arguments suggest that the repair should be carried out in a dry dock and not in the water.

The position of the problem on Tireless is illustrated in two further diagrams of the reactor: one, two.

 

Reactor pressure vessel being loaded onto HMS Triumph at Barrow in Furness, Cumbria,

Nuclear submarine fault mishandled

The Ministry of Defence has a major problem with the reactors which power its fleet of nuclear submarines.

The behavour of the British government and officials over this issue is very similar to their predecessors' handling of the crisis of BSE in cattle. On 12th May there was a serious accident on HMS Tireless. It is now clear that for months the Ministry of Defence did not know the extent of the problem or understand its cause.