HMS Tireless close to meltdown

According to the Guardian newspaper of 28 October, the submarine HMS Tireless was within hours of a meltdown on 12 May. The following are some comments on this story:

The latest information on the extent of the problem on the submarine shows that the cracking is far more extensive than first admitted. This means that the accident at sea was also more serious. The crack could easily have resulted in a major steam explosion and the loss of most of the coolant from the primary circuit. This in turn could have resulted in a melt down. This would have been catastrophic for the crew and could even have led to "Chernobyl in the Mediterranean".

The article also says that the Royal Navy is likely to carry out a repair on a submarine in Britain before it begins a repair on Tireless. This is very interesting. It is known that there are four Trafalgar class submarines in Devonport which have the same problem as Tireless; at least one of these is currently undergoing a major refit. It is most likely that the repair would be carried out on one of these submarines in a dry dock at Devonport. But if they are only prepared to do the first repair in a dry dock, why are they still seriously proposing repairing HMS Tireless in Gibraltar ?

Making the first repair on one of the other submarines would also mean that there is going to be a long delay before Tireless leaves Gibraltar. Lt Cmdr Jenkins, the Captain of Tireless has said that they still do not know the full extent of the fault or the cause of it (Iberianews). We do know the area where the fault is, it is very close to the pressure vessel of the reactor. It is going to take some time for a plan to be worked out and tried on a submarine in Devonport. This is going to mean a delay of many months to Tireless. Even if the original simpler repair was completed on the original schedule the submarine would have remained in Gibraltar until around Christmas.

Further information and diagrams are available.

John Ainslie, Scottish CND, 28 October 2000