The Terrifying History of Nuclear Submarine Graveyard

For decades, the Soviet Union used the desolate Kara Sea as their dumping grounds for nuclear waste. Thousands of tons of nuclear material, equal to nearly six and a half times the radiation released at Hiroshima, went into the ocean. The underwater nuclear junkyard includes at least 14 unwanted reactors and an entire crippled submarine that the Soviets deemed proper decommissioning too dangerous and expensive. Today, this corner-cutting haunts the Russians. A rotting submarine reactor fed by an endless supply of ocean water might re-achieve criticality, belching out a boiling cloud of radioactivity that could infect local seafood populations, spoil bountiful fishing grounds, and contaminate a local oil-exploration frontier.

[tedsmith]

So, why use a thumbnail of a cruise ship (Costa Concordia after refloating?) for a presentation about Submarines?

[hhudler]

Physicist here: old reactors cannot explode so stop trying to scare people. Their fuel is not pure enough to do this when they are new and after years of use the fuel rods are mostly spent all they can do is produce a little heat.

[zach]

Reactor randomly going critical.. don't fear monger mate. There's a reason it took years to make a reactor go critical in the first place..

[matchismo]

Critically.... I would hope we can all critically think and ask ourselves, who hired this mouthpiece?

[maxpower]

The damage being done to this planet will catch up with all of us one day.

[rodiculous]

I like how he's talking about nukes ending all human life and the music is all happy and cheery

[TheEarl]

An old US sailor said” it’s amazing the water isn’t glowing of the Florida keys. There’s footage of thousands of barrels being ditched of a navy vessel.

[clearingbaffles]

We dumped the original USS Seawolf SSN-575’s reactor vessel in the Atlantic and we used to discharge the resin from the ion exchanger back in the day making some of those critters Irwin Allen used in Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea

[Daniel-pudw]

I was on a navy surface exploration of Russia's Murmansk sea, the experience was eye-opening. End of story 1973.

[Smart-Skippy]

@Eternity #Eternity ... This is the most comprehensive video on this subject I've seen. Kudos and thank you !

[kernj]

Talk about when france and england dump on their nuclear waste of off the coast of Africa.russia did it in Russia

[davidhunter]

This information has been known for decades. Nice clear presentation though. How about one on all the ships sunk in WWII which are now rusting through and releasing hundreds of thousands of tonnes of fuel oil which has been waiting patiently inside the hulks.

[thorout]

Russia should be accountable and fix their own problems

[RepomanPro]

Perhaps Jeff Bezos and Bill Gates could fund the effort to save our oceans from warming.

[harryacam]

Love the uplifting background music, myself and my family nodded our head's to the happy beat!👍

[mustangflyer]

I'm curious, what does the refloated Costa Concordia have to do with a submarine documentary, besides the fact that both have spent time underwater? Oh yea one more thing, this video

[debbiekerr]

This video was very interesting and informative. I'm really impressed with the quality of the content.

[lewisdoherty]

Attempting to move deteriorated subs might likely cause them to break apart or things to spill out. It seems like it would make more sense to send out ships used for dredging with neutron absorbing non-toxic materials and just bury them where they are on the floor. Something which chemically would bind with any released nuclear materials probably could be found. It would also be possible to drill into the hull and pump materials into the hull.

[d.b]

Love the cheery background music while talking about city-destroying nuclear submarines

[sunburnd]

i love the light & cheery background music to this video