Feb 16, 2009
Ahh.. less than a week after the dreadful and nasty collision of the US and the Russian satellites, here comes another alarming news - two Nuclear submarines have collided in the North Atlantic. The British Royal Navy’s HMS Vanguard and the French navy’s submarine Le Triomphant are the ones that have met with this dastardly accident.
The accident is said to have occurred in the first week of this month itself (Feb 3rd) but it came into limelight just days before.
The British Royal Navy boasts of its Vanguard class submarines being equipped with a State-of-the-art Sonar technology and a dedicated Collision Avoidance Radar to prevent any proximity collisions.
What is more disgusting is that both these submarines are nuclear powered engines, from the Uranium fueled pressurised water reactors. The culminating fact is that both were carrying Nuclear warheads at the time of this collision. This has sparked a lot of controversy among the Defense ministries of UK and France, which have not officially uttered anything about the incident.
“A much bigger disaster was on the cards, though we’ve been bit more lucky in both these incidents.”
What is the plight of this incident ?
Both the submarines are 150 metre plus in size carrying a crew of 250 plus in total. Though no casualities are reported, it is highly plausible that a nuclear detonation cum disaster could have had happened. Both the incidents - the last week’s Satellite collision and this week’s Submarine collision - have thrown up a lot of questions against the verity of safety and security practices of environment and the international codes of conduct being ensured in the scientific world.
A much bigger disaster was on the cards, though we’ve been bit more lucky in both these incidents. How are we going to ensure that innocent people and the enviroment will not become victims for the dreadful and selfish plight of the military activities of the world nations ? I guess it is high time that the International Community should enforce stricter laws when it comes to the space and the environment.The WEuropean Union has already called for International codes of conduct for nations that have theeir property in the space.
In one hand we are high on praise with regard to the scientific proliferations and technologies that deliver so much good to humans, but on the other, it poses more danger to the innocent common man. The scientific community and the military of world nations should understand that without this world, there is nothing they can achieve or conquer !
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