Russian Nuclear-Powered Cruiser 'May Blow Up', From Reuters Options

[jonerik]

Russian navy chief: Nuclear ship could blow up
Startling remark may be related to infighting in military


AP file
Russia's navy chief said Thursday that the nuclear-powered Peter the Great missile cruiser, seen in this 1996 photograph, was in dire condition and unfit for service.

Updated: 8:12 a.m. ET March 23, 2004

MOSCOW - Russia’s navy chief said Tuesday that one of the nation’s most powerful ships, the nuclear-powered Peter the Great missile cruiser, was in such dire condition that it could “explode” at any moment — a statement some observers attributed to infighting among the navy brass.

Adm. Vladimir Kuroyedov said that the massive cruiser had been badly maintained and that “it’s especially dangerous because it has a nuclear reactor.”

At the same time, Kuroyedov said that he had ordered the captain to fix the ship in two weeks, casting doubt on the credibility of his alarmist statement.

“During that time, the captain must correct all the flaws related to the ship’s maintenance,” Kuroyedov said, according to the Interfax and ITAR-Tass news agencies.

Kuroyedov didn’t provide details of the ship’s condition, but said the shortcomings also related to maintenance of the ship’s nuclear reactor.

“Everything is all right on the ship where admirals walk, but in the areas where they don’t, everything is in such condition that it may blow up at any moment,” Kuroyedov was quoted as saying.

His statements were particularly shocking because the cruiser, the Northern Fleet’s flagship, was officially named the best ship in the fleet last year.

Alarmist statement questioned
The business daily Kommersant on Tuesday reported Kuroyedov’s decision to declare the Peter the Great unfit for service and said it could have stemmed from his personal conflict with Retired Adm. Igor Kasatonov, uncle of the cruiser’s captain, Rear Adm. Vladimir Kasatonov.

Kommersant said that Kuroyedov could be also aiming at the Northern Fleet’s ex-chief, Adm. Gennady Suchkov, who had been temporarily relieved of his duties pending the official investigation into his role into the sinking of a decommissioned nuclear fleet submarine in August.

Kuroyedov sought to shift the blame for the sinking to Suchkov, but Kasatonov said during court hearings this month that Kuroyedov bears the main responsibility for the disaster, which killed nine of 10 crewmen on board the K-159 submarine when it sank in a howling storm on its way to a scrapyard.

Russian media also have criticized Kuroyedov over his role in the August 2000 sinking of the Kursk nuclear submarine and his failure to improve the navy’s degrading condition. Many expected President Vladimir Putin to fire Kuroyedov, but he has managed to cling to the job.

In the latest blow to Russian military prestige, the navy failed to perform missile launches from nuclear submarines during last month’s ambitious maneuvers personally overseen by Putin.

Kuroyedov claimed that the first of two scheduled launches had never been planned despite numerous earlier announcements to the contrary. The statement was widely ridiculed by Russian media.

Copyright 2004 Reuters Limited. All rights reserved. Republication or redistribution of Reuters content is expressly prohibited without the prior written consent of Reuters.

[Guest]

never trust a russian.

[allie]

Holy crap. That would suck indeed.

[ennui]

I saw a show about Chernobyl... The rescue workers that responded (thinking it was a normal fire) said as they approachd the scene, they could taste METAL in their mouths. Then the radiation began to burn their skin. Most died a few days later.

Invisible killer! Raw, hot power! Perhaps GOD is manifested as radioactivity on earth. I bet if you touch GOD, you get cancer.

[jonerik]

I saw a show about Chernobyl... The rescue workers that responded (thinking it was a normal fire) said as they approachd the scene, they could taste METAL in their mouths. Then the radiation began to burn their skin. Most died a few days later.

Not to put too fine a point on it, but the Russians have a pretty lengthy history of cutting corners when it comes to nuclear projects. Paul Josephson's "Red Atom: Russia's Nuclear Power Program from Stalin to Today" makes for pretty interesting reading if that sort of thing interests you. The 2002 Harrison Ford movie "K-19" was based on a true incident in 1961 when one of the USSR's first nuclear submarines experienced a failure in its reactor cooling system. The Russians got better at building these sorts of systems as time went on (they didn't have much choice), but they're still somewhat primitive compared to what you'd see in the West on warships of similar vintage.

The thing that strikes me as odd about the Peter the Great is that, yeah, the Russians are cash-strapped, but that ship is a pretty big deal to them. It's an enormous ship - not much smaller than an American aircraft carrier - and the Russians love showing it off on occasions when they decide to show the flag. I'm surprised they'd have let its maintenance slip that badly.

[Furfy]

When you say blow up, do you mean like, hitting it big on the charts, or like, doing the death star circa 77. Cause that Snoopy Dog Dog's shit is like blowing up on the charts G.

[JayCal]

as they approachd the scene, they could taste METAL in their mouths

That happened when I saw Slayer, too.

[Furfy]

Adm. Vladimir Kuroyedov also stated that he thought it "unwise" to store dirty rags, empty vodka bottles, spent fuel rods, and cigarette lighters next to the Captain's stash of roman candles.

[Dakota]

Invisible killer!  Raw, hot power!  Perhaps GOD is manifested as radioactivity on earth.  I bet if you touch GOD, you get cancer.

[Furfy]

I saw a show about Chernobyl...  The rescue workers that responded (thinking it was a normal fire) said as they approachd the scene, they could taste METAL in their mouths.  Then the radiation began to burn their skin.  Most died a few days later.

Invisible killer!  Raw, hot power!  Perhaps GOD is manifested as radioactivity on earth.  I bet if you touch GOD, you get cancer.

It's called ''nuclear lava.'' Fortunately, the hellish stuff exists in only one place: Chernobyl. After the No.4 nuclear reactor blew its top on Apr. 26, 1986, tons of scorching nuke fuel oozed from room to room, consuming cement, melting steel pipes, and contaminating everything in its path. With time, the mess cooled and congealed. Today, a floor of rock-hard, radioactive lava marks history's worst nuclear accident.

In places, the lava wells up eerily from the floor. One such ''stalagmite'' looks like an elephant's foot. Curiosity is dangerous, though. Every second you linger, you're getting zapped by radiation. Even quick visits in protective suits can mean soaking up 30 rads (a unit of radiation exposure). That's about 100 times the dose most people get in a year from X-ray exams and sunlight. But Chernobyl workers regularly brave the danger to monitor conditions inside.

[Dakota]

there was a really large and nasty nuclear disaster in russia in the winter of '59-'60 that people still don't widely know about to this day

US intelligence kept its mouth shut because it would have been bad publicity for the US nuclear programs both civil and military

excellent book on the topic: Nuclear Disaster in the Urals by Zhores A. Medvedev

a give away is that all the towns in this area of the ural mountains disappeared off official maps after 1960, never to return

both russian and US maps.