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HE LOSS of the nuclear submarine Komsomolets last April and the deaths
of its 42-strong crew (This Week, 15 April 1989) was a result of design
faults and poor safety procedures, an official from the Soviet Ministry
of Shipbuilding has revealed.

Igor Koksanov, who signed the official accident report jointly with
defence minister, Dmitri Yazov, told Izvestiya that the submarine’s electrical
equipment included ‘production-line’ items from the 1970s which were insufficiently
fire resistant. Furthermore, he said, flammable materials were used extensively
both in the construction of the submarine itself and in the fittings and
paint, while the design of the service ducts enabled the fire to spread
easily through the bulkhead.

The full findings of the inquiry will remain secret, and some of the
factors contributing to the disaster can only be deduced from newly adopted
changes in design and safety standards. These changes, Koksanov stated,
are now being introduced throughout Soviet naval vessels, both submarine
and surface. These improvements according to Koksanov, will include the
installation of ‘sensors ensuring the guaranteed indication of ignition
on all vessels’.

The Komsomolets fire, Koksanov said, was due to faulty electrical equipment
which overheated to between 600 and 700 Degree C, at which he said ‘no apparatus
existing to date in the world could have survived’.

The deaths in the disaster became a sensitive issue for the Soviet government.
One of the most vocal critics of the Soviet Navy’s handling of submarine
safety was Gavriil Popov, an economist, who later became one of the best-known
‘liberal-reformists’ in the Soviet Union. He was recently elected Mayor
of Moscow. Although Koksanov never mentions Popov, the latter’s campaign
would have immediately sprung to the mind of Izvestiya’s readers.

Several of Popov’s main criticisms – the lack of heated escape suits,
insufficient practice in emergency procedures – were reiterated by Koksanov,
with promises of remedial action. One of the nuclear submarines made redundant
by recent arms-reduction agreements is likely, Koksanov said, to be converted
into a safety-training facility.

Popov’s other allegation that the naval high command unnecessarily sacrificed
lives to ‘security’, by rejecting Norwegian offers to help the stricken
submarine, likewise seems justified by events. According to Koksanov, foreign
firms have been allowed to tender for the job of raising the Komsomolets.
Moreover, according to De Telegraaf last week, the contract seems likely
to go to the Netherlands.