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Gorbachev suggests nuclear sub crew for Nobel Peace Prize
MOSCOW. Feb 1 - Former Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev has sent a request to the Norwegian Nobel Committee asking to nominate the crew of the Soviet nuclear submarine K-19 for a Nobel Peace Prize in 2006. The crew averted an accident onboard the sub on July 4, 1961.
Damage in the primary cooling circuit of the nuclear reactor onboard the submarine, which resulted in the reactor's fissile core overheating, occurred in the near vicinity of a NATO base in the Norwegian Sea.
Gorbachev points out in his letter that all standard instructions for such situations did not help stop the temperature from rising, which could have triggered an uncontrolled chain reaction. Having consulted with the mechanics and other specialists, the sub's commander, Nikolai Zateyev ordered that "an improvised pipeline be assembled in the shortest possible time, through which water was directed from reserve drinking water tanks to cool the reactor."
"After two hours of work at the limit of human abilities (which is confirmed by a minute-to-minute analysis of the situation), the temperature in the reactor was brought to a level controlled by switchboard instruments," Gorbachev said.
"The personal courage of these heroes in fact averted a thermal explosion of the reactor and a subsequent environmental disaster of the ocean area, as the explosion onboard the K-19 could have been dozens of times more powerful than that at the Chernobyl power plant," he said.
In addition, an explosion onboard the K-19 could have been qualified as provocation on the part of the USSR and an attempt to launch a nuclear attack on the coastal part of North America, he said.
(From Interfax ), emphasis mine.
MOSCOW. Feb 1 - Former Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev has sent a request to the Norwegian Nobel Committee asking to nominate the crew of the Soviet nuclear submarine K-19 for a Nobel Peace Prize in 2006. The crew averted an accident onboard the sub on July 4, 1961.
Damage in the primary cooling circuit of the nuclear reactor onboard the submarine, which resulted in the reactor's fissile core overheating, occurred in the near vicinity of a NATO base in the Norwegian Sea.
Gorbachev points out in his letter that all standard instructions for such situations did not help stop the temperature from rising, which could have triggered an uncontrolled chain reaction. Having consulted with the mechanics and other specialists, the sub's commander, Nikolai Zateyev ordered that "an improvised pipeline be assembled in the shortest possible time, through which water was directed from reserve drinking water tanks to cool the reactor."
"After two hours of work at the limit of human abilities (which is confirmed by a minute-to-minute analysis of the situation), the temperature in the reactor was brought to a level controlled by switchboard instruments," Gorbachev said.
"The personal courage of these heroes in fact averted a thermal explosion of the reactor and a subsequent environmental disaster of the ocean area, as the explosion onboard the K-19 could have been dozens of times more powerful than that at the Chernobyl power plant," he said.
In addition, an explosion onboard the K-19 could have been qualified as provocation on the part of the USSR and an attempt to launch a nuclear attack on the coastal part of North America, he said.
(From Interfax ), emphasis mine.
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