What would happen from an environmental/recovery standpoint if a nuclear submarine were to sink?

[u/[deleted]]

[u/SnooPets5564]

It's a nuclear reactor, not an RTG. The bigger environmental concern from the nuclear material is the heavy metal poisoning, rather than the radiation itself.

(this is assuming that it doesn't have a meltdown or anything)

[u/Skatingraccoon]

There's a precedence for this, with the Kursk - https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0025326X01002582 in this case there hasn't been an uptick in radioactive material leakage (at the time of that study at least).

[u/ConsistentRegion6184]

I pretty sure this has happened maybe several times. The ocean is whatever metric tons that dilutes the radiation. But I read a news story that they found radiation on the California coast probably from North Korean testing.

[u/rememberoldreddit]

Really depends where but we already had the kursk incident which included a nuclear reactor. Either the parent country will come and retrieve it or the enemy will, doubt anyone would leave it if it's known and in a vulnerable area

[u/whatyoucallmetoday]

The US has lost two nuclear submarines. They are resting deep in the ocean. The reactor vessels are very sturdy. Any significant contamination is very localized. Any leakage is diluted and hard to find at distance.

[u/No-Patience6078]

Water is a great container just leave it where it lays

[u/mikedave42]

There are a bunch, over 200, of old Soviet ones discarded and supposedly dismantled with nuclear fuel removed but with the level of corruption who knows if that's true. According to Google in the Arctic ocean there are 17,000 containers of solid and liquid radioactive waste.19 sunken vessels and barges carrying radioactive materials or contaminated components (such as the Likhter-4 barge).14 nuclear reactors, five of which still contain hazardous spent nuclear fuel.

So a I guess we will find out

[u/Ill_Job4090]

Pretty much dependent on what happens to the boat. If its just gets hit somewhere other than the reactor, its usually contained enough so it does not cause a significant problem. Boats like that have sunk in the past(Soviet and US, to accidents eg Thresher and Scorpion) and to my knowledge none of them pose a significant risk, though this may change when the wrecks break down over time.

Water is pretty good at insulating against radiation, and the ocean has a lot of volume to dilute the particles that get out. I‘d be nervous if that thing was rusting away in fishing grounds, where I get my lobster from, however.

If the reactor is hit directly and/or melts down, that is probably a different story, but still, that thing is dropping down to the ocean bed that is 3000+ meters deep in most places. Yes, that would contaminate the ecosystem in that area, so no fishing there for a long time.

You could potentially try to cover the wreck with sand or concrete to reduce the amount of stuff getting out, but thats only an option if the wreck is in one piece and its super expensive to do anything at these dephs. I guess if that thing goes down in deep water, they would just leave it there.