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V-5 Atomic Reactor, Submarine

The successful creation of a nuclear submarine flotilla with a VM-A reactor became the basis for the further development of the nuclear submarine fleet. The development of atomic science and technology, the expansion of theoretical knowledge and experimental data have opened the possibility for the development of a more advanced transport reactor, which is a second-generation installation, which would take into account all the mistakes of the previous project and use the latest materials, designs and devices. New nuclear power plants received the indices “VM-4” and “V-5”.

The main requirements for the new generation of submarines were to increase their reliability and survivability, as well as to reduce the size of the nuclear installation. The basis for the start of work was the Resolution of the Central Committee of the CPSU and the Council of Ministers of the USSR, adopted in August 1958.

From the very beginning, the design of reactors went in two alternative directions, whose supervisor was A.P. Alexandrov. The scientific innovations and designers identified the main innovations that distinguish the second-generation reactor:

• the exception of a branched system of pipelines of the primary circuit;
• the use of several compensation grids with individual drives;
• transition to two-speed primary circulation pumps;
• increasing the resource of all PPU equipment up to 12 thousand hours, and campaigns in the core — up to 5 thousand hours.

The first direction, which was entrusted to the Design Bureau of Plant No. 92 (Gorky, chief designer I.I.Afrikantov), involved a transition to completely new design solutions that eliminated the shortcomings of the previous design of a nuclear power plant. The OKB project was handled by sector “B”, which already had experience in creating a nuclear superheater installation (PPU) for the atomic icebreaker “Lenin”. The design bureau development reactor received the BM-4 index.

The second direction, where NII-8 (the chief designer N. A. Dollezhal) was the ideological leader, was to preserve the main circuit layout solutions of the VM-A reactor and to modernize its bottlenecks as much as possible. The second generation reactor for the NII-8 design submarine received the “B-5” index.

In fact, work on the installation of "V-5" began long before the release of the above resolution. Since 1955, NII-8 was engaged in the development of the VK installation with a water-to-water reactor for Project 639 nuclear submarines. Its features were the placement in the active zone of several light compensation organs for excess reactivity, the one-way flow of water in the active zone, and uniting the main equipment installations, etc. Actually, the VK installation was the design of the first block steam-generating installation, which later proved its effectiveness.

In 1958, work on project 639 was discontinued, and all the ideas that NII-8 specialists used were used to create a second-generation reactor installation for project 661 nuclear submarines. The combat mission of the new submarine was the fight against high-speed guard ships and enemy aircraft carriers.

The technical design of the V-5 PPU was prepared by NII-8 together with LIPAN in November 1959. The two-reactor V-5 installation was distinguished by a number of new technical solutions. So, the largest equipment and part of the radiation protection was placed on foundation beams that were not attached to the solid hull of the boat, which reduced the dynamic effect on the equipment. As the main material of radiation protection, more efficient serpentinite concrete began to be used. In addition, a unified control system for remote and automatic control was developed for the installation.

When developing the design of the V-5 PPU for the first time in the practice of NII-8, electronic computers were used for complex multivariate calculations of the core.

Due to the tight deadlines for the project, it was necessary to abandon the construction of a ground-based prototype (stand) to verify the correctness of the adopted design and construction decisions, limiting itself to the use of a number of experimental stands. So, instead of the analogue of stand 27 / VM, it was decided to create a full-sized thermohydraulic (non-nuclear) stand at the Izhora plant, the manufacturer of the V-5 PPU, in order to maximize its design and technological innovations. Therefore, at the Izhora plant, three sets of installation equipment were manufactured at once: one for a thermohydraulic stand, and two for a future ship.

A critical stand was built at LIPAN (Institute of Atomic Energy), on which the physical characteristics of the reactor were studied.

The construction of the experimental boat of project 661 (Anchar) in Severodvinsk after its laying in December 1963 lasted for a long 5 years. The main reason for the lag behind the schedule was that the hull of the boat was to be made of titanium, the production of which was just getting better in the USSR.

The nuclear reactor facilities on the boat were located in compartment 5. The main power plant consisted of two autonomous groups - starboard and port side. Each group included a V-5 nuclear steam generating unit with a reactor, a turbo gear unit (the main ship engine, consisting of several turbines and a gear transmission), and an autonomous turbogenerator. The nominal thermal power of each reactor was 177.4 MW.

The water-to-water reactor and sections of the once-through steam generators placed around it, included on their hydrochambers, were connected by pipe-to-pipe connections. The adopted “tight” layout and placement of equipment made it difficult to maintain maintainability, and the task of maintaining the plant’s operability in case of individual failures of the GHG sections was solved due to the possibility of cutting off the sections during repair periods. The aggregation of each of the two launchers installed on the nuclear submarine, from a design point of view, was distinguished by exceptional originality and courage of design decisions.

The first block PPU "V-5" in specific gravity was 2 times, and in saturation of the energy compartment 2.5-3 times higher than the best indicators achieved by this time.

In December 1968, the nuclear submarine was launched, and a year later, after all the necessary tests were carried out, it was transferred to the Navy. During state sea trials, the boat demonstrated unique driving performance - the submerged speed of 42 knots was developed at a reactor power of 80% of the rated speed, and during pilot operation at full nuclear power capacity - 44.7 knots, which to this day is a world record .

The trial operation of the submarine ended in December 1971. The submarine, which received the K-162 index (K-222 since 1978), entered combat service in September of the same year, during which the submarine marched to the equator to the Brazilian Depression from the Greenland Sea. During this transition, the submarine escorted the aircraft carrier Saratoga (USA), which several times tried to break away from the submarine, developing a speed of more than 30 knots, but failed to achieve the desired result. Moreover, the atomic submarine, carrying out maneuvers, sometimes ahead of the American ship. For two and a half months of the campaign, the boat rose to the surface only once.

Due to the use of titanium, the project 661 boat turned out to be very expensive, for which it received the name "Goldfish". For the same reason, the boat did not go into series, remaining the only ship. She served in the Navy until 1998.