When we talk about military-grade naval engineering in Spain, it is to be expected that its safety standards and construction protocols are impeccable. Therefore, when we found out that a nuclear submarine is being assembled with glue, all the alarms go off. This is what has happened with a nuclear submarine of the Royal Navy of the United Kingdom, which has aroused controversy after learning that some workers they used glue to stick some bolts into the reactor chamber.
We are talking about HMS Vanguard, a 16,000-tonne submarine that, according to The Sun, he is involved in a botch job with unforeseeable consequences. Senior officials of the Royal Navy itself have opened an official investigation to clarify what happened.
The failed refrigeration pipe repairs were only discovered when one of the glue-repaired bolts fell out during overhauls. From the looks of it, over tightening the bolts caused their heads to crack. Instead of spending time fixing it by drilling out damaged shafts, the staff just superglued the heads back on.
the big botch
Those responsible swell the civil personnel of the Babcock defense contractorwhich is carrying out a dry dock refit and replenishment at HMNB Devonport. The works to thoroughly review this nuclear submarine began in 2015 and its repeated delays, which accumulate more than 4 years over the scheduled date, adds an extra cost of 336 million euros over the initial budget. Ben Wallace, the UK defense secretary, demanded an urgent meeting with Babcock and “assurances on future work”.
for what it reveals The Sun It is believed that there were at least seven studs stuck that were holding all the insulation of the cooling pipes of the nuclear reactor of the submarine itself, those in charge of reducing the temperature so that an accident like the one in Chernobyl does not occur. They were also found shortly before the engineers started the reactor at full power to check its status.
Although the workers reported the problem in the procedure, the details were silent, including everything related to the bolts and glue. babcock He said absolutely nothing to the Navy, provoking the ire of the members of the Royal Navy, who have described it as a “shame”.
This was expressed by a source The Sun, who explained that in such a situation, “you can’t take shortcuts. Standards are standards. Nuclear standards are never compromised“. Investigators are currently reviewing the records to determine the exact date of the event and who was responsible.
HMS Victorious belonging to the Vanguard class
Sources from the British Royal Navy have wanted to shed some peace of mind in the face of the concern caused by this fact, assuring that the nuclear safety issues had been resolved. Even if the reactor had been ignited, there would have been no breakdown or explosion. Still, it is still a tremendously high risk and a security hole that could be fatal.
Babcock currently has contracts of all sorts with the Royal Navy, including servicing the Astute and Vanguard submarine fleets in Scotland and servicing military equipment in Devonport.
The Vanguard Submarines
The Vanguard class is the backbone of the UK submarine fleet. It is a nuclear-powered submersible developed in the 1980s and the first copy of which -the one that gives its name to the class and has been the protagonist of this incident- was put into service in 1993. It was the one chosen by the Royal Navy to equip the Trident missiles with the nuclear warheads. A total of 4 units were built, all of which are currently active.
HMS Vigilant, belonging to the Vanguard class
The length of the Vanguard class submarines amounts to 150 meters powered by a nuclear reactor signed by Rolls-Roycea maximum submerged speed of 25 knots, a crew of 135 people and all kinds of sensors and weapons dedicated to electronic warfare.
As for his weapons, the Vanguard have Trident II nuclear missiles. Each of them has a weight of 59 tons, a length of 13.5 meters, a diameter of 2.11 and are capable of carrying different configurations of nuclear warheads. The United Kingdom announced in 2016 that the submarine in ‘patrol mode’ could equip a total of 40 nuclear warheads and 8 Trident II missiles.
HMS Vengeance
It should be noted that the continuous delays suffered by the refit operations of the damaged HMS Vanguard have caused other British submarines such as HMS Vengeance, HMS Victorious and HMS Vigilance to carry out longer and more extensive patrols.
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