[AR] Re: MSR reactors.
- From: Henry Spencer <hspencer@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- To: Arocket List <arocket@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Sat, 13 Jul 2019 17:30:59 -0400 (EDT)
On Sat, 13 Jul 2019, Ed Kelleher wrote:
...the US's huge lead in submarine technology steadily shrank...
"We had competition in submarine design. You had Stalinism!"
"The evil that men do lives after them;The good is oft interred with their
bones.", William Shakespeare, Julius Caesar
The gauge is not the technology.
I'd say that to a large extent it *is*, because the US's commanding lead
was largely due to Rickover making things happen much more quickly than
they would have otherwise. To his credit, *he* built that huge lead...
but then he slowly destroyed it, by clinging to (indeed, expanding) his
control of the design process and rejecting almost all further innovation.
There was a comment during a funding panel at a long-ago Space Access that
applies pretty well: "The pathological narcissists with delusions of
godhood are what you need to get things started, but later they must
either turn themselves into managers or bow out in favor of managers."
The Polmar&Moore book is well worth reading, not least because it appeared
long enough after the end of the Cold War that it could include the view
from both sides. (In submarines as in space, there was a tendency to
think of the Soviet program as a mirror image of the US program, which it
was not.)
Rickover instituted procedures and designs that could be operated and
maintained, under all conditions, by enlisted sailors; safely,
effectively and repeatably (regular turnover in crews). ... No nuclear
accidents that I'm aware of.
Not in the narrow sense of reactor damage or meltdown, no. But remember
that Rickover did far more than just train the engineering crews; some of
the several design flaws that combined to sink USS Thresher were in
propulsion and happened on his watch.
Also, there was a price. That emphasis on operation by enlisted sailors
led to manpower-intensive systems and distrust of even the simplest forms
of automation, which meant larger crews and therefore larger (and more
expensive) submarines. In the beginning it was probably the right thing
to do, but alternatives should have had more consideration later. Other
navies have pursued less-manpower-intensive approaches successfully.
Rocket relevance: A good safety culture goes a long way.
Indeed so. Some things he did right.
Henry
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