It's not enough that the Military is ask to risk their lives, now we have a doped up scum bag that wants off early! http://abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory/...back=.gde_76974_member_137700770#.UA8GYGGPmAg
just to clear things up, this was not a member of the Navy as you might be led to believe by the headline. . quote from the article. ..... A civilian laborer set a fire that caused $400 million in damage to a nuclear-powered submarine because he had anxiety and wanted to get out of work early, Navy investigators said Monday.
The first part of the article makes that clear " civilian laborer set a fire that caused $400 million in damage to a nuclear-powered submarine because he had anxiety and wanted to get out of work early, Navy investigators said Monday." I guess they wanted to be PC so they did not say Yard Bird sets fire. Having once been a Yard Bird myself means I really don't care what they call that turd. HK
The one thing we most feared under way was fire. There is no practical way to fight a fire in a steel hull, unless you get it before it's so big you can't cover it with your palm. Ignoring the electrical aspects totally, letting water inside a ship for fire fighting is NOT a good thing; the prime directive of navigation is "Keep the water OUT of the boat." The moreso in submarines, there isn't enough excess bouyancy on the surface, and essentially none when submerged. In this case, the boat was in drydock or we would be out a couple billion instead of a few hundred thousand. That rabbit brain should be removed from the gene pool.
Actually, the way most Nuke boats are built, you close off the compartment, and flood it with CO2.... You may kill a few Crew, but you also snuff out the Fire... It is the same with a blown Sea Cock... You seal the compartment, and pressurize it with High Pressure Air, or CO2, from the Flasks..... Better to have, Bubbles out, than, Water in.... while you heading to the surface......
Try over $400 million in damage according to the story (for just 1 of the 2 fires he has allegedly confessed to starting). I try not to get too nit-picky, but that is a lot of cash.
Well, that could be these days, but betcha not CO2, there is no other reason to carry it. (In fact, it has to be scrubbed and sent overboard to avoid getting the concentration high enough to kill crew. Our scrubber went down once, and I can tell you, we did some work to get that puppy back running. Percentage was high enough to slow everyone down.) Halon, maybe. Air, no. Need the air to blow main ballast, and compartment bulkheads are not designed to stand full depth pressure. Now, there are some commercial freighters that seal the engine rooms and flood them with nitrogen or argon when under way. Different application of gas flooding, but quite common.
Halon 1301 fire extinguishing system is used in a very few places, not that I'll admit to knowing that. Now banned from further production, a green thing. CO2 is a deadly and having to put on a Scott Air Pack to clear a commercial area is something I never liked, both times.
