RE: K-19

["Ted Rockwell" <tedrock@CPCUG.ORG>]

> 1. what type of reactor plant was installed on K-19?



2. whether or not the symptoms of radiation sickness for the crew members

who went inside the reactor compartment were realistic or not.



Rosita:



1. The submarine had two pressurized water reactors.  (The movie referred to

them as "forward" and "aft," but they were actually side by side.)



2. In an American submarine, or the UK, French and other subs based on the

same technology, you can go into the reactor department as soon after

shutdown as you can get the hatch open (a few minutes) and get no

significant radiation dose. (The main radiation source during operation is

an isotope of nitrogen with a 7.6 second half-life, formed from irradiation

of oxygen in the H20.  After a minute or so, all you see is Co-60 from the

corrosion of pipe walls, and it's not very high.) I've gone in myself, more

than once.  But the Russian subs had terrible fuel elements, and thus had

considerable radioactivity circulating in their reactor cooling system.  So

we have reports of very high doses, inside the shielded compartment, even

after shutdown.  Based on interviews with some of the survivors, the K-19

depiction may not have been far off.



But that scene is not relevant to a modern civilian nuclear power plant.



Ted Rockwell



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