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Project 927 Submarine Tanker

The Central Design Buraeu "Wave" began developing nuclear submarine as a tanker in 1973. Work was halted at the design stage. Submarines, and in particular nuclear submarines presently are extensively used, but only for military purposes. However, the purpose of this Project was to use submarines on a commercial basis primarily for the transportation of crude oil from frozen regions such as the Arctic regions. This could be a viable means of meeting the transportation needs for new discoveries of major oil areas proliferating in the Arctic islands wherein the construction of pipelines and port facilities is physically and economically unfeasible.

The transportation of petroleum products safely and economically is one of the most urgent problems facing the world today. From the viewpoint of ecology the transportation of such products are too often dangerous. Then, it is not unusual when such products are transported over water for a ship to spill many thousands of gallons of petroleum products into the sea because it has become disabled by collosion or a storm, with consequent material destruction to marine and air life and the spoilage of miles of shoreline. When such products are transported by pipeline, the mere presence of such a line, can cause untold damage to the environment and the life it sustains, aside from the damage that may be caused by breakage of such a line by weather, accident or design. The problems encountered in the transportation of such products from their sources are also very serious. Consider the problems created by the location of new fields in the Artie Ocean.

Water transportation of petroleum products recovered in far northern or Arctic regions of the world presents unique requirements: Many of the water passages and straits are impassable because of great ice accumulations and necessitate underwater transportation over at least a part of the distance. Accordingly, the buoyancy of the vessel must be adjustable over a wide range to permit travel underwater and beneath such ice accumulations with or without cargo and requires not only close control of the overall buoyancy of the vessel but selective variation in the buoyancy or trim in different sections of the vessel.

In the transportation of liquid cargo either by submarine or surface vessels, compartmentalized storage cells defining a structural part of the vessel are each made up of an outer tank or chamber enclosing an inner expansible bladder in which the liquid cargo is stored and isolated from the rest of the chamber. Inlets at the lower end of the chamber permit entry of water into the lower portion of the chamber, and upper inlets in the upper portion of the chamber permit introduction and removal of air or other gas into and from each chamber respectively either to regulate the buoyancy of the vessel, to permit removal of undesirable gases, or to fill the space occupied by the bladder during unloading of the cargo. The buoyancy of the cargo chambers or of separate buoyancy chambers within different sections of the vessel can be regulated independently or simultaneously to selectively vary the trim or ballast of the vessel.

Semi-submerged vessels have been proposed or constructed in various configurations. In most of these vessels there is considerable internal structure which limits the use of the available space. The submerged hulls, for example, are usually limited to use as fuel tanks or for controllable water ballast systems. The superstructure above water can be arranged in any suitable manner and is readily accessible, but access to the submerged hulls is through the supporting struts, which are restricted by structural requirements.

Water transportation of oil and other petroleum products present special problems and difficulties insofar as safe handling, storage and efficient transportation are concerned, particularly in long distance transportation in which the liquids will tend to undergo expansion and contraction. In the transportation of liquid cargo, whether by boat or submarine, special care must be taken to regulate the buoyancy of the vessel and at the same time prevent undesirable contamination as well as comingling of the oil with fluids or liquids employed to regulate the trim and ballast of the vessel. Moreover, the means provided for storing the liquid cargo desirably should facilitate safe, rapid handling of the cargo in filling and removal from the container and maintain complete separation of the cargo from the sea water and fluids in order to prevent loss of residue or possible contamination.

P. Takis Veliotis, General Dynamics' executive vice president marine and general manager of its Electric Boat Division, and Spencer Reitz, Electric Boat deputy general manager, outlined their proposal for a submarine tanker in a technical paper presented before the recent Gastech '81 LNG/LPS Confer- ence and Exhibition in Hamburg, Germany. The nonnuclear version, which would burn methane in supercharged boilers to power huge turbines, would be 1,470 feet long. The nuclear version would be 200 feet shorter. Each would have a beam of 228 feet and a depth of 92 feet. They would be operated by a crew of 32. The ships would carry the LNG in six 341-foot cylindrical cargo tanks with a total volume of 140,- 000 cubic meters.