CONTROVERSES NUCLEAIRES !
HISTOIRE
NUCLEAR SHIP ACCIDENTS: DESCRIPTION AND ANALYSIS
ADIT, octobre 2010
DOCUMENT .doc (~ 1 Mo) de 1993
Mises à jour
THE TECHNICAL UNIVERSITY OF DENMARK
DEPARTMENT OF ELECTROPHYSICS
DK-2800 Lyngby, Denmark

NUCLEAR SHIP ACCIDENTS
DESCRIPTION AND ANALYSIS
by
P.L.OLGAARD
MAY 1993

Abstract
     In this report available information on 28 nuclear ship accident and incidents is considered. Of these 5 deals with U.S. ships and 23 with USSR ships. The ships are in almost all cases nuclear submarines. Only events that involve the nuclear propulsion plants, radiation exposures, fires / explosions and sea water leaks into the submarines are considered. Comments are made on each of the events, and at the end of the report an attempt is made to point out the weaknesses of the submarine designs which have resulted in the accidents.
     It is emphasized that much of the available information is of a rather dubious nature. Consequently some of the assessments made may not be correct.

 INTRODUCTION
     In Denmark a "Nuclear Preparedness Group" has been established in cooperation between the Riso National Laboratory, the Technical University of Denmark and the Danish Nuclear Inspectorate.
     This group collects information about nuclear facilities in the areas surrounding Danish territory and follows the nuclear development in general. The reasoning behind the group is to ensure that the necessary information is available, should the Danish authorities need information about nuclear facilities or events.
     A major activity of the group has been to collect information about nuclear power plants situated not too far from Danish territory. In addition an attempt has also been made to collect information on nuclear ships. At several occasions nuclear ships have sailed through the Danish straits. It should also be remembered that the Faroe Islands and Greenland are part of the Danish Kingdom. Thus all traffic with nuclear ships in the North Atlantic may be of relevance to Danish authorities. Accidents with this type of ship may give rise to radioactive pollution which may again affect the fishing fleet.
     The information on nuclear ships which the group has attempted to collect includes information on accidents with nuclear ships, safety aspects of nuclear ship propulsion plants ships and sea disposal of nuclear reactors. The reason for collecting this information is to create a better basis for risk assessments in case of nuclear ship accidents or in case of release of radioactivity near the sea bottom from disposed reactors or from sunken nuclear ships.
     While it has not been too difficult to obtain information about civilian nuclear ships, reliable information on nuclear naval ships is for reasons discussed in section 2 of this report not readily available.
Mises à jour 2010:
* Carte du "plus grand cimetière nucléaire du monde"
* Le rapport .pdf plus récent (mais 5 Mo) - 1996 - du RISO Institute sera bientôt disponible aussi en .doc
* Voir également un gros document très complet:
Cold War submarines: the design and construction of U.S. and Soviet submarines
* Livre "La dramatique histoire des sous-marins nucléaires soviétiques" paru en 1992 chez Robert Laffont, dont un extrait est disponible sur: http://www.dissident-media.org/infonucleaire/K27.html