Technical Data [180]

Compartments: 9

1. Torpedo room and accommodations
2. Accumulator, accommodations and mess;
3. Control room;
4. Auxiliary machinery and diesel generator;
5. Reactor compartment;
6. Turbine compartment;
7. Electro-technical and control centre for reactor;
8. Auxiliary equipment;
9. Steering system, accommodations.

Reactors:

Two pressurised water reactors, model VM-A, 2 x 70 MWt (2 x 17.500 hp). The reactors were running at 80% of their available power.

Construction Yard:

Shipyard 402, Sever Machine Building Factory at Molotovsk (now known as Severodvinsk). The submarines were built in the period from September 1955 to December 1963.[182]

Naval Architects [181]

• Principal builder: Building and Construction Company SKB-143, V.N. Peregrudov.
• Scientific Director: A.P. Aleksandrov.
• Principal builder of nuclear reactors: Khimmash Scientific Research, N.A. Dollezhyal.
• Electrical equipment: Elektrosila Institute, A.V. Mozalevskiy.
• Radio electronics: NSh-49, N.A. Tsharin. Navigation equipment: MNII-1 Scientific Research Institute, E.I. Eller.
• Hydroacoustics: Scientific Research Institute No. 3, E.I. Aldyshkin.
• Air regeneration system: GIPKh Company, V.S. Shpak.
• Steel: Institute of Metallurgy and Welding, G.I. Kopyrin and V.A. Gorynin.
• Naval Architects: UAGI Company, K.K. Fedayevsky and UNII Scientific Research Institute, V.I. Pershin.
• Nuclear Weapons: Scientific Research Institute-400, Mayak, A.M. Borushko.

Individual Submarines

Northern Fleet:

K-3,

Leninskiy Komsomol, factory no. 254, first nuclear powered submarine of the Soviet Union. Laid down on September 24, 1955, launched August 9, 1957, commissioned on July 1, 1958, sailed out to the White Sea on July 3. Ship's nuclear reactors started for the first time on July 4, 1958. K-3 was stationed at Zapadnaya Litsa. The submarine's first commander was L.G. Osipenko.[183] On July 17, 1962, K-3 was the first Soviet submarine to reach the North Pole. The reactors were seriously damaged in June 1962 as a result of a fire and subsequent problems in the cooling system.[184] The submarine was towed to Severodvinsk where the decision was made not to deactivate the reactor. The reactor compartment of the ship (No. 258) was therefore cut out and transported away to be dumped in Abrosimova Bay in the Kara Sea.[185] One of the reactors was dumped with its fuel. A new section with two reactors was then installed, but in 1967 another accident occurred affecting this section.[186] Today there are plans for the construction company Malakhit to turn K-3 into a museum.[187]

K-5,

factory no. 260. Commissioned on August 17, 1960. The Reactor compartment was cut out and replaced with two new reactors.

K-8,

factory no. 261. Commissioned on August 31, 1960. Two months later on October 13, 1960, there was an accident involving the power generator with a leak of radioactivity outside Great Britain.[188] The submarine sank in the Bay of Biscay outside Spain on April 12, 1970 following a fire.

K-11,

factory no. 285. Commissioned on December 23, 1961. During refuelling operations in Severodvinsk, an uncontrolled chain reaction occurred resulting in a fire on February 12, 1965.[189] The reactor compartment (either no. 254 or no. 260 was considerably damaged and had to be cut out of the submarine. Later that same year or in 1966, both reactors were dumped into Abrosimova Bay in the Kara Sea while still containing their fuel,[190] and a new reactor compartment was installed.

K-21,

factory no. 284. Commissioned on December 23, 1961.

K-181,

factory no. 287. Commissioned on October 16, 1962.

K-159.

Commissioned on November 4, 1963.

K-50,

factory no. 290. Commissioned on December 20, 1963.

K-52,

factory no. 283. Commissioned on December 23, 1963.

Pacific Fleet:

K-14,

factory no. 262. Commissioned on December 31, 1959. The submarine belonged to the Northern Fleet until 1965 when it was transferred to the Pacific Fleet.

K-42,

Rostovsky Komsomolets. Commissioned on November 4, 1963. Laid up in 1990.

K-115,

factory no. 265. Commissioned on December 30, 1960. Originally assigned to the Northern Fleet; transferred to the Pacific Fleet in 1963.

K-133.

Commissioned on October 16, 1962.

Foto, 56 kb.

Endnotes

[179] Morskoy sbornik, no. 1 - 1995. Return
[180] Ibid. Return
[181] Mormul, N., Note, 1995. Return
[182] Pavlov, A.S., Military Vessels in the Soviet Union and Russia 1945-1995, 1994. Return
[183] Krasnaya Zvezda, January 28, 1995, with reference to the magazine Russkoe Orushiye (Russian Weapons) which in turn refers to the book Post-war History of the Soviet Navy (1945-1991) by Rear Admiral Georgyj Kostev. Return
[184] Komsomolskaya Pravda, June 30, 1989. Return
[185] Yablokov, A. V., Facts and problems related to radioactive waste disposals in seas adjacent to the territory of the Russian Federation, Moscow 1993. Return
[186] Osipenko, L., Zhiltsov, L., and Mormul, N., Atomnaya Podvodnaya Epopeya, 1994. Return
[187] Mormul, N., Note, 1995. Return
[188] Ølgaard, P.L., Nuclear ship accidents: description and analysis. 2nd Rev., Page 4. Department of Electrophysics, Technical University of Denmark, 1994. Return
[189] Ibid. Return
[190] Yablokov, A. V., Facts and problems related to radioactive waste disposals in seas adjacent to the territory of the Russian Federation, Moscow 1993. Return