Mohammad Sohail Ahmed
THE fire on French naval nuclear powered submarine on 13 Jun reminds us of previous nuclear and fire accidents onboard submarines in the past. It also reminded the French authorities of the inferno at the famous church of Notre Dame at Paris about fourteen months ago. Since France is preparing to host the world Olympics of 2024, the President of France expressed his desire to restore and renovate the famous church before the start of the Olympics. Now more of a tourist spot, the church earned fame due to the novel of Victor Hugo, the hunch back to Notre Dame. Even though the cathedral had 160 fire detection devices, installed after 6 years of designing the fire detection system, the fire caused serious damage to the building and tower.
When the fire broke out the alarm system alerted the security staff but they wasted 30 precious minutes to locate the fire and it took another 15 minutes for the firefighters to arrive. By this time the fire had spread significantly. Investigations involved 1000 pieces of evidence and 100 witnesses’ statements. It pointed out the possibility of cigarette butts or electric short circuit that caused the fire. This was further aggravated due to the delay in locating the start point or location of fire soon after the alarm had sounded. The cost of renovation is estimated at 600 million US Dollars which are being collected through donations from American residents presumably of French origin. The findings of the fire investigation report are somehow linked to the fire onboard Rubis class nuclear-powered submarine at the port city of Toulon. The submarine was undergoing a major refit and life extension program when the fire broke out in the forward section of the submarine.
The French Defence Minister Florance Parly visited Perle the submarine soon after the fire and made two interesting comments. Her first comment was that the submarine was stripped bare in the dock, implying that since the submarine was under refit, all the systems were dismantled and there was no safety issue concerning nuclear plant onboard. She did not elaborate on the status of core, the plant and safety of nuclear devices. Moreover, stripped bare gives an impression of French summer beaches with vacationists lying bare on the beeches as part of French culture despite opposition from within the French society the ugly practice continues.
The most startling revelation that came from the Minister was an analogy that she drew about the fire onboard submarine with that of Notre Dame. The reports are that the workers engaged in renovation work in the forward compartment of the submarine. After welding or soldering processes, there was simmering heat in the area when the workers left the site. Besides tubes and tanks, the forward portion houses bunks for the crew. Due to paucity of space, the bunks are made like railway berths one over the other with the option to use space below the bunk as a storage locker. The crew members can stow their belongings in the locker-cum-bed. Since woodwork is required in a space which is surrounded by oil, water tanks of steel and needs welding work for the reinstallation of the items, the risk of fire increases in the area. The fire was so immense that it heated the pressure hull for fourteen hours. The question is what made the fire to perpetuate for fourteen hours if most of the equipment was removed. The answer given by the Minister of Defence to the media is that the electric cables network is not removed and it is estimated that it continued to burn for such a long time.
While welding pressure hull a sudden cooling of the hull is not usually practised to avoid deformation of the hull. however, in this case, it was a compulsion. Excessive heating followed by sudden cooling of high elasticity steel causes deformation of the hulls metallic structure. It is also possible that electric short-circuiting in portable or fixed repair system caused fire onboard. Most of the systems are removed during the major refit and locating scene of fire becomes difficult as in case of Notre Dame where the staff failed to locate the fire quickly. Similarly, a cigarette butt thrown by a contract worker could have started the fire onboard. Irrespective of the cause of the fire, the deformation of pressure hull steel could jeopardize the safety of the dived platform. If such platforms operate with a nuclear reactor onboard, they pose risk to the environment from nuclear material or contamination to marine life. It will be interesting to recall the accident on the Rubis class submarine, Emerald, during its operation at sea in March 1994. The commanding officer along with 10 sailors was inspecting a steam pipe compartment at sea. During the inspection, the captain detected leakage of steam from a pipe. The diving officer was informed who started taking an emergency surfacing procedure and increased the speed.
This caused leakage to increase at such a fast pace that the person in the compartment failed to open the double hatch to vacate the compartment thereby killing all the ten people including the commanding officer. Subsequently, the French authorities claimed that the leakage of steam was not radioactive. All the Rubis class submarines were directed to return to port for inspection and possible rectification to avoid recurrence of such accident. Unfortunately, developed countries don’t share lessons learnt from their failures which puts them in a disadvantageous position also. What these countries fail to realize is that nuclear technology can be a global threat like coronavirus and it can engulf their population besides others.
Failure of the French defence minister to publicly admit that pressure hull of a submarine can’t be reliable after being continuously burnt for fourteen hours is a clear example of hiding facts under the umbrella of technical reports and analysis. It is the strength of Islam that emboldens one to accept the loss by stating, from Allah we come and to Him we return. On the lighter side it is being stated by some person that since all the submarines are painted black, the fire might be an act of racism against the blacks. The government of Pakistan need to take up the matter at UN level and also directly with the French government to share their experiences related to nuclear installations and mutually assist each other to improve safety of nuclear installations.
—The author is a freelance writer and Retired commodore of Pakistan Navy.
