Nuclear subs collided in Atlantic this month
LONDON - Nuclear submarines from Britain and France collided deep in the Atlantic Ocean this month, authorities said yesterday in the first acknowledgment of a highly unusual accident that one expert called the gravest in nearly a decade.
LONDON - Nuclear submarines from Britain and France collided deep in the Atlantic Ocean this month, authorities said yesterday in the first acknowledgment of a highly unusual accident that one expert called the gravest in nearly a decade.
Officials said the low-speed collision did not damage the vessels' nuclear reactors or missiles or cause radiation to leak. Antinuclear groups said it was still a frightening reminder of the risks posed by submarines prowling the oceans powered by radioactive material and bristling with nuclear weapons.
The first public indication of an accident came when France reported in a little-noticed Feb. 6 statement that one of its submarines had struck a submerged object - perhaps a shipping container. Confirmation of the accident came only after British media reported it.
France's Defense Ministry said yesterday that the sub Le Triomphant and the HMS Vanguard, the oldest vessel in Britain's nuclear-armed submarine fleet, were on routine patrol when they collided in the Atlantic. It did not say exactly when, where, or how the accident occurred.
France said that Le Triomphant sustained damage to a sonar dome - where navigation and detection equipment is stored - and limped home to its base on L'Ile Longue, on France's western tip. Vanguard returned to a submarine base in Scotland with visible dents and scrapes, the BBC reported.
Vanguard came into service in 1993, has a crew of about 140, and typically carries 16 Lockheed Trident D5 missiles.
Le Triomphant carries 111 crew and 15 nuclear missiles, according to the defense analysis group Jane's.
"This is the most severe incident involving a nuclear submarine since the sinking of the Kursk in 2000 and the first time since the Cold War that two nuclear-armed subs are known to have collided," said Kate Hudson, head of Britain's Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament.
Russia's Kursk nuclear submarine crashed to the bottom of the Barents Sea during a training voyage in August 2000, killing all 118 crew members.