in the face of ever-changing Naval Warfare It's common for specific pieces of technology to
become outdated in the blink of an eye some of these obsolete Technologies are dismantled or
repurposed others are kept in museums while some vacant such is the case with the devonport naval
base's submarine graveyard 13 nuclear-powered submarines float Atop The Waters almost half of
which still contain fueled nuclear reactors today we discovered the Davenport Naval base's submarine
graveyard and its risks I'm your host Ryan silkash and you're watching its history [Music]
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let's start off by having a look at the history of the devonport Naval Base the Davenport Naval Base
also known as devonport Royal dockyard is located in Devon England just west of the city of Plymouth
it is the largest naval base in Western Europe and serves as a nuclear repair and refueling facility
one of the Royal Navy's three bases in fact the Royal Navy has been operating out of it for over
300 years the Naval Base was first established as the Royal Navy dockyard the end of the 17th
century following the 1698 crowning of the Dutch William of Orange Is King of England because there
was no longer a looming Naval threat from the Netherlands the spotlight was turned on Spain
and France prompting the construction of a naval base to the West End of England Edmund Dumber a
Navy surveyor produced a design for The Yards layout that was nothing short of innovative the
basis Center was a stone line Basin connected to a stone dry dock which could be drained to allow
access to the vessel's underside during upkeep the designer intentionally minimalized maintenance
cost and fire risk by using stone for the dry dock instead of Timber the dock also had a remarkably
secure foundation and stepped sides Dumber also chose to use a two-hinged section gate over the
more popular three-hinged gate as it was easier to build and use the dockyard was equipped with
just about everything needed to maintain ships on site one of the most significant Innovations
was the double rope house in which workers spun ropes on the ground floor and repaired sails on
the second over the next century and a half the dock continued to expand it grew so much that
a new yard for steamship building was eventually added alongside the Prince of Wales Basin it also
boasted centralized storage so with that in mind let's take a look at what submarines rest there
today the HMS Valley and is widely remembered as the first ever all British nuclear submarine
it had a length of 285 feet a beam of 33 feet a 27 foot drought and a displacement of 4 900
tons when submerged submarines of this class were based on the earlier Dreadnought class but were
about 20 feet larger they also ran significantly quieter and had Paxman diesel electric generators
to reduce their noise even further constructed at the height of the Cold War and launched in
1963 the HMS Valiant soon became the first visitor to the refitting and refueling base in 1966. this
maintenance visit set a precedent quickly ushering in subsequent nuclear submarines for maintenance
and refueling the HMS Valiant went on to set a royal Navy record in April of 1967 after 12
000 miles in 25 days will fully submerged on return trip from Singapore to Scotland
it also served during the Falkland War more in 1982 patrolling and watching the coast of
Argentina unfortunately its service was cut short by engine problems in 1994 and has since been laid
up in the dockyard nicknamed the conchs the HMS conqueror was a Churchill class nuclear-powered
Fleet submarine that served the Royal Navy from 1971 to 1990 alongside the HMS Churchill and the
HMS courageous the HMS conqueror was one of three Churchill class submarines each manned by a crew
of 103 officers and rates as you can likely guess the name for the class and its fellow
submarine comes from the former British prime minister Winston Churchill the primary purpose
of the Churchill class was to spy on USSR nuclear submarines as well as to follow and even attack
Russian ships submarines during the Cold War these submarines were ordered as direct replacements for
the earlier Valiant class Fleet boats though they shared the exact dimensions and display basement
as the Valiant class upgrades were made to their sonar electronics and communication gear the
EMS conqueror is most well known for its involvement in the 1982 Falklands War in which
it became the only nuclear-powered submarine to have engaged an enemy ship with Torpedoes sinking
in argentinian-like Cruiser since its 1984 launch the HMS tireless has been no stranger to accidents
it was one of seven Trafalgar class submarines armed with Tomahawk cruise missiles and held the
record for the longest submarine deployment of 10 months away from base it was deployed worldwide
from the Mediterranean Sea and the Atlantic Ocean to the Arctic it mainly participated in
anti-submarine Warfare patrols it even helped in the search for Malaysian Airline flight 370
but as mentioned earlier it was involved in many serious accidents during operation one of these
incidences occurred in 2000 where a severe primary coolant leak put the submarine in extreme danger
in 2003 the HMS tireless was taken to Scotland for repairs thorough inspection after a collision at
Sea and just four years after that the explosion of a self-contained oxygen generator tragically
claimed the lives of two mechanics under the North Pole there was even another nuclear leak from its
reactor cooling system in 2013 during an exercise off the coast of Scotland so as you can likely
tell while the technology of these submarines is formidable even their storage is dangerous
allow me to explain as mentioned prior many of the submarines docked still have fueled nuclear
reactors the dismantling of nuclear reactors was halted in 2002 after the port was ruled inadequate
to handle the job safely because of this the remaining nuclear reactors must be cared for
delicately they are powered down and constantly cooled with external Power and Water even one of
them overheating would be a complete disaster causing fires meltdowns or even the release of
radioactive particles gases into the air the Devon support off-site emergency plan details
the immediate risks to the population of Plymouth in the event of an accident it also describes the
actions that must be taken afterwards some of these actions include the establishment
of an exclusion zone between 2 and 10 kilometers population evacuations and farming restrictions
up to 30 kilometers people would have to shelter in place and would be provided potassium iodate
tablets in a Declassified document from a 2011 Ministry of Defense board meeting Commander
Andrew McFarland the ministry's senior nuclear safety regulator stated the following quote
all pressurized water reactors are potentially vulnerable to a structural failure in the primary
circuit causing a rapid decompression and boiling off of most of the cooling water this results in
the failure of fuel cladding and the release of Highly radioactive fission products outside the
reactor Corp he goes on to State the following well the further contaminant provided by the
submarine's pressure Hall may contain the majority of this material inside the submarine leakage is
likely to occur as you can imagine even a small leak could potentially be disastrous should it
happen its impact on the surrounding population would be immediate however it is essential to
remember how delicate the defueling process is especially as plans to defuel and dismantle the
submarines are approached so to defuel a nuclear reactor core you must remove its shielding cap and
expose the reactor core to remove its fuel rods and this vulnerable state not a single mistake
can be made one wrong move could cause the core to become extremely unstable resulting in a fire
explosion or the release of radiation into the air the fuel rods can also get jammed or breached
risking localized intense fission reactions or hot spots by spilling their contents the risk is
also higher for older reactors according to the office for nuclear regulation the dockyard is no
stranger to engineering errors one such incident occurred in July of 2012 when Personnel failed to
back up primary and backup power sources to the parts of the dockyard that Supply the power for
the continuous cooling of the reactor cores for 90 minutes those present had to use fire hoses
to cool the reactors by hand and this situation Nation narrowly prevented a grave nuclear incident
as of today more and more people are pushing to recycle the submarine graveyard and reallocate
the dock space many of whom are residents of Plymouth and earlier this year the HMS
Valiant was confirmed as the first of Davenport submarines to be recycled though an exact time
frame has yet to be established I wonder are there other precautions that can be taken while
recycling these submarines let me know what you think in the comments below and consider joining
the channel and subscribe for more until next time this is Ryan silkash signing off