Service Editor
"Hiroshima"
On July 4, 1961, under the command of Zatyev, K-19 sneaked into the waters of the North Atlantic near South Greenland to prepare for launch training. After the submarine surfaced, the main circulation pump and auxiliary circulation pump of the nuclear reactor got stuck, and the temperature in the reaction zone of the reactor rose rapidly. But at the same time, it was even more unfortunate that there was an electrical failure in the radio system, and they were unable to contact the headquarters for rescue. The reactor temperature soon exceeded the control limit and reached a high temperature of 900 degrees Celsius. This high temperature has reached the melting point of the reaction rod and made the reaction in the original reactor intensified. Although the control rod of the automatic reactor had been inserted into the reactor at that time, all was to no avail.
If the submarine reactor is not controlled anymore, a reactor explosion is likely to occur. At the same time, the boat carries 3 nuclear missiles and liquid fuel for the missiles. Once the explosion occurs, the sea area will cause serious ecological crisis and nuclear pollution. NATO bases may also be damaged. The captain was afraid that after the submarine exploded, he would give the United States an excuse to launch a nuclear war. The captain and crew unanimously decided to form a 7-person team consisting of onboard engineers and crew, dive into the reactor compartment, cut off the air adjustment valve, and re-weld the cooling water. Supply pipes to install a backup cooling system. These seven people entered the reactor compartment full of nuclear pollution to repair the reactor regardless of personal safety, so that the submarine reactor was gradually controlled, and then the crew of the K-19 crew was transferred to the S-270 boat in the nearby waters by the S-270 boat. Drag it back. The crew members who entered the reactor compartment died on the spot due to nuclear contamination. Those who did not die on the spot also died on the way back, that is, within a week of the incident. The nuclear leak caused a lot of damage by walking through the pipelines of the entire submarine. Other crew members were exposed to nuclear contamination. Almost all of the first crew members, including the captain, suffered more or less nuclear contamination. In the years after the incident, at least 20 crew members died. Diseases caused by nuclear pollution.
The U.S. Navy's warship near K-19 received the radio communication between the K-19 backup radio and the S-270 and actively sent a radio to the K-19 boat to say that it could help, but the captain feared that Soviet military secrets would be leaked to NATO. And ignored it. At the same time, in order to prevent possible mutiny, the captain confiscated all light weapons except for the pistols in the hands of six trusted officers and threw them into the sea.
After returning to the port for control, K-19 quickly began repair work, but unfortunately the residual nuclear pollution of K-19 caused nuclear pollution on the shipyard's berth. All maintenance personnel must wear heavy protective clothing to enter the enclosed shipyard for repairs. , Which undoubtedly increases maintenance time and difficulty. After overhauling, the engineers discovered that the submarine’s disaster was due to the unqualified quality of a solder joint in the K-19 main circulation loop, which caused nuclear leakage in the entire circulation loop and the jam of the circulation pump. In 1965, the K-19 boat was restored and returned to the Northern Fleet, but at this time he was given the nickname "Hiroshima" (in American movies he was ridiculed as "Widowmaker").
On February 1, 2006, the former Soviet leader Gorbachev proposed to the Norwegian Nobel Committee that all K-19 crew members at the time of this incident should be nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize. In recognition of their success in avoiding a potential nuclear war in this accident. In June of the same year, Zatyev, then captain of the K-19, was nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize.
At 7:13 on November 15, 1969, the K-19 boat collided with the US attack submarine Shark[1], which was parked to monitor the waters at the time, in the Barents Sea Strait at a depth of about 60 meters. After the impact, the main water tank of the K-19 boat did not sink due to emergency drainage and high reserve buoyancy. The impact caused damage to the bow of the K-19 boat, in which the bow-shaped sonar array was completely destroyed, and the outer hatch of the torpedo tube was also peeled off. The pressure hull of the Little Shark was knocked out of a big hole, and the submarine quickly lost its balance and sank. After a long underwater struggle, it surfaced and barely returned to port.
At that time, the torpedo captain on the small shark was ready to launch an anti-submarine torpedo to sink K-19, but the captain of the thresher, L. Buckhold, stopped him in order to prevent nuclear retaliation from the Soviet Union. [2]
On February 24, 1972, in a 120-meter-deep sea area 1,300 kilometers away from Newfoundland, Canada, the engine room of the K-19 boat on strategic duty suddenly caught fire. The 28 crew members on duty at the time were unfortunately killed in action. The cause of the fire was due to the hydraulic fluid leaking into the heat filter causing a fire. After catching fire, the boat immediately floated up and accepted the rescue by the nearby NATO surface warship. The warship quickly arrived and evacuated all crew members except for the 12 crew members in the torpedo cabin behind the engine room with the steamer at the tail. After the evacuation, the sea breeze made it difficult for the warship to tow the submarine. The K-19 boat kept tossing and turning until April 4, when it was returned to the port of Severomorsk and was trapped in a torpedo. The 12 crew members of the cabin were rescued after spending more than 40 days in a space lacking water and food, low temperature and almost no light. The accident forced K-19 to return to the port for major repairs and then return to the Northern Fleet. This incident is also the accident with the largest number of deaths among non-sunken nuclear submarine accidents in the world.
In 1991, the K-19 boat was finally decommissioned after 30 years of ill-fated service. But on June 4, 1991, just before its decommissioning, the K-19 boat suffered another reactor failure. Although the accident was quickly controlled, the submarine was not contaminated and there were no casualties, but the accident also caused the Soviet government to It was decided to decommission the boat under the START-II agreement. After that, the ship’s nuclear reactor, weapons and electronic equipment were towed to the "nuclear submarine cemetery" on the Kola Peninsula to wait for the final dismantling. In May 2002, the K-19 boat was towed to the port of Snezhnogorsk in Murmansk for dismantling. In October 2003, the Russian government decided to completely dismantle the boat in the "nearly" period.
In 2006, Vladimir Romanov, who used to be a chef on K-19, became a rich man. He bought the submarine, which was about to be dismantled at any time, and prepared to moor the submarine in Moscow as a club or museum for retired submarines during the Soviet period. . Some retired sailors on K-19 boats strongly opposed this move. [3]
It is reported that the 59-year-old Romanov was born in Lithuania, the Soviet Union. From 1966 to 1969, he served as a chef on the K-19 submarine. After the disintegration of the Soviet Union in 1991, Romanov returned to his hometown of Lithuania to go to sea for business. As the business grew bigger and bigger, he became a billionaire. Later, he lived in Scotland, England, and became the owner of the Su Chao Edinburgh Courage Football Club, with nearly $1 billion in assets. It is said that Romanov's redemption of K-19 was "purely out of affection and has nothing to do with money" in order to fulfill the last wish of the boat's late captain Nikolai Zadeyev.
View more about K-19: The Widowmaker reviews
