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© Large & Associates 200
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![Text Box: HMS TIRELESS Nuclear Reactor Incident of 2000
Ministry of Defence Attempts to Suppress Large & Associates on HMS Tireless Incident
In advance of a paper authored by John Large to be published by the Institution of Mechanical Engineers (2 March 2005 - see Forthcoming Events), the Ministry of Defence approached the IMechE in a letter claiming the paper to be technically unsound.
In May 2000 whilst in the Mediterranean HMS Tireless developed a leak in the primary coolant circuit of her nuclear propulsion reactor, having to close down the nuclear plant and make for Gibraltar under emergency diesel power. The repairs in Gibraltar occupied almost a full year and, as a result of what was discovered in Tireless, all of the other 6 Trafalgar and 2 Swiftsure class nuclear powered submarines fitted with the same PWR1 nuclear reactor had to return to UK dockyards for inspection and major repairs.
In the paper, to be presented at a technical seminar on the Forensic Investigation of Power Plants (2 December, IMechE Headquarters), John Large discusses the problems of forensically assessing the state of the nuclear propulsion plants of HMS Tireless and the ill-fated Russian Federation submarine Kursk. Throughout the period of repairs to Tireless John Large was appointed by the Government of Gibraltar, advising on the safety of the repairs, and he put together and headed the team assessing the weaponry and nuclear hazards of the Kursk throughout its world-first salvage in 2001.
When John Large challenged the basis of the MoD 'unsound' claim, under the Data Protection Act, he was provided with 70+ pages of internal MoD e-mails in which unnamed naval officers and MoD staff discussed amongst themselves how to stymie the paper's publication, running counter to the advice of the senior naval officer in charge of the Tireless investigation and repairs who stated quite categorically that "The narrative that he [Large] gives about TIRELESS and KURSK I would not take issue with . . . . his [Large] overall facts are correct".
John Large said "I am very disappointed with the Royal Navy and the Ministry of Defence. Its seems to me that the MoD's opinion of the soundness of my paper was nothing more than a poorly thought out ruse to suppress the open publication of the facts about HMS Tireless. The facts are that a generic fault was allowed to develop in each of the Royal Navy's nuclear powered attack submarines, the poor quality assurance of the maintenance programme allowing the defect to develop unchecked, and it illustrates the weaknesses in allowing the Royal Navy to self-regulate its own nuclear safety in secretive and unaccountable ways".
He went on "I have lodged a formal complaint with Defence Minister Adam Ingrams about the behaviour of the Royal Navy officers and MoD staff members involved and, in addition, I have asked him to account for three very confidential issues raised in the MoD copy correspondence".
Date: 25 February 2005 - No Embargo
Further information from John Large 44 (0) 20 8317 2860 44 (0)7971 088086 - links to further information highlighted thus.](tireless_press_release_files/image001.gif)