1. Russian Nuclear Submarine
Accidents Survey
Ole Reistad
Norwegian Radiation Protection Authority
1

2. Russian Nuclear Submarine
Accidents Survey
Ole Reistad
Norwegian Radiation Protection Authority

3. All safety-related events 1958–2007 (annual/
cumulative (right axis)) distributed by vessel category
140
14
120
12
100
10
80
8
60
6
4
40
2
20
0
1959
1965
1971
1977
1983
1989
1995
1. gen submarines
2. gen submarines
3. gen submarines
2001
0
2007
LMC
3
No. of safety-related events (cumulative) (right y-axis)
Number of events
160
16
Number of events
18

4. All safety-related events 1958–2007 distributed
by safety significance (1–7) (left axis) and events with release
of radioactivity (cumulative) (right axis)
18
30
16
25
12
20
10
15
8
6
10
Number of events
Number of events
14
4
5
2
0
1959
0
1965
1
1971
2
3
1977
4
1983
5
1995
2001
0
2007
1989
Year
7
Events with release of radioactivity (accumulated)
4

5. 150
100
50
2007
2001
1995
1989
1983
1977
1971
1965
0
1959
In-service years (annual)
200
Operational years (cumulative)
Annual (left) and cumulative (right) vessel-operatingyear (VOY) for Russian nuclear submarines
6000
5000
4000
3000
2000
1000
0
1
6 11 16 21 26 31 36 41 46
Year
Year
1. gen (VOY)
2. gen (VOY)
LMC (VOY)
All classes (total VOY)
2. gen (VOY)
1. gen (VOY)
3. gen (VOY)
3. gen (VOY)
LMC (VOY)
5

6. 80
0
60
0
30
0
10
0
12
12
10
10
6
4
2
Number of vessels
8
0
Vessel operating days
3 0 0 -1
0 0
6 0 00 -4 0 00
9 0 0 00 00 0
1 2 0 00 7 00 0
-1 00
0
1 5 00 0 00 0
0 -1 0 0
1 8 00 0 3 00
0 -1 00
2 1 00 0 6 00
0 -1 00
2 4 00 0 9 00
0 -2 00
2 7 00 0 2 00
0 -2 00
3 1 00 0 5 00
0 -2 00
3 4 00 0 8 00
0 -3 00
3 7 00 0 2 00
0 0 -35 00
0 0 00
-3 00
80
00
0
10
00
11
00
-1
20
13
0
00
-1
40
15
0
00
-1
60
17
0
00
-1
80
19
0
00
-2
00
0
90
0-
70
0-
50
0-
20
0-
0-
Num ber of vessels
Vessel operating days (left) and distance (right) for
first-generation vessels
8
6
4
2
0
Vessel distance traversed (miles)
6

7. Safety-related event
rate (events (annual)/
VOY (annual))
Safety-related event rate (annual) - annual number of
events/ annual vessel operating years (all vessel
classes)
0.6
0.5
0.4
0.3
0.2
0.1
0.0
1959
1979
1999
Year
1. generation vessels
2. generation vessel
0.6
0.5
0.4
0.3
0.2
0.1
0.0
1959
1979
1999
Year
3. generation vessels
LMC vessels
7

8. Mean-time between safety-related events, 1959–2007 (left)
and 1959–1984 (right) with confidence interval
1000
MTBF (in-service years)
MTBF (in-service years)
1000
100
10
1
100
10
1
100
1000
VOY (years)
10000
100
1000
10000
VOY (years)
8

9. Mean-time between safety-related events involving the
release of radioactivity with confidence interval
MTBF (in-service years)
10000
1000
100
10
100
1000
VOY (years)
10000
9