Soviet submarine K-27
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| Career | Missing image Supennant.png Soviet Navy Ensign |
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| Ordered: | |
| Laid down: | 15 June 1958 |
| Launched: | 1 April 1962 |
| Commissioned: | 30 October 1963 |
| Fate: | scuttled after reactor fuel element failure |
| Homeport: | Zapadnaya Litsa |
| Stricken: | |
| General Characteristics | |
| Displacement: | 3420 tons surfaced, 4380 tons submerged |
| Length: | 109.8 meters |
| Beam: | 8.3 meters |
| Draft: | 5.85 meters |
| Propulsion: | Two VT-1 146MWt lead-bismuth (liquid metal) cooled reactors |
| Speed: | 30 knots |
| Depth: | 300 meters |
| Complement: | 105 officers and men |
| Armament: | 8 (10?) torpedo tubes |
K-27 was the only submarine built by Projekt 645ZhMt of the Soviet Navy. Projekt 645 did not have its own NATO reporting name; it was a prototype, incorporating a pair of experimental VT-1 reactor plants using liquid-metal coolant into a November-class hull. Her keel was laid down on 15 June 1958 at Severodvinsk. She was launched on 1 April 1962, commissioned into the Northern Fleet on 30 October 1963, and homeported at Zapadnaya Litsa.
The VT-1 reactors were troublesome from first criticality, but K-27 was able to continue operations for five years. On 24 May 1968, however, one reactor's power output suddenly dropped sharply, radioactive gases were released into the reactor compartment, and radiation levels throughout the boat increased dangerously -- by 1.5 Gy/h (mostly gamma and neutron, with some alpha and beta from the gasses), in the reactor compartment. The crew's training was inadequate; they did not recognize that their reactor had suffered extensive fuel element failures. By the time they abandoned their attempts to repair the reactor at sea, nine crewmen had been fatally exposed.
About one-fifth of the core had experienced inadequate cooling caused by uneven coolant flow. The hotspots had ruptured, releasing nuclear fuel and fission products into the liquid metal coolant, which circulated them throughout the reactor compartment. The Soviet Navy was incapable of repairing her, and decided that even dismantling the submarine would be too difficult, so she was scuttled at a depth of 50 meters in Stepovogo Fjord, Novaya Zemlya, off the Kara Sea in 1981.
Any lessons learned from Projekt 645 were applied in Projekt 705 and 705K -- the Alfa class submarines, which were equipped with similar liquid-metal-cooled reactors.
| November-class submarine |
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K-3 | K-5 | K-8 | K-52 | K-21 | K-11 | K-181 | K-159 | K-50 (K-60) |
| List of Soviet and Russian submarines List of Soviet and Russian submarine classes |