Project 645 November-ZhMT

Number: 1

This submarine was based on the hull of the November class submarines, and belonged to the Northern Fleet. Only one Project 645 ZhMT submarine was ever built.

Technical Data [246]

Only a few years after construction, cracks were discovered in the metal-hull due to corrosion between the crystals. Apart from a few changes in the bow, the Project 645 submarine is identical to submarines of the November class in order to shorten the construction time.

Compartments: 9

1. Torpedo room
2. Accumulators and Living accommodation
3. Control room
4. Reactor compartment
5. Turbo and diesel generators, cooling and auxiliary machinery
6. Turbines
7. Generator

Reactors [247]

Two VT-1 type liquid metal (lead-bismuth) cooled reactors with a capacity of 146 MWt and shaft power of 35 000 hp. A test reactor of the same type as that used on board K-27 was in use at Obninsk as early as 1955. A new steam-boiler was developed especially for this submarine that required considerably less electrical power in the start phase and during cooling. Subsequently the capacity of the batteries was only 75% of those on board the November class submarines.

Naval Architect

V.N. Peregrudov, SKB-143.

Construction Yard

The Project 645 ZhMT was built in Severodvinsk.

Individual Submarines

K-27,

factory no. 601. The only one built of this class. Laid down on June 15, 1958. Launched on April 1, 1962 and commissioned to the Northern Fleet on October 30, 1963. Based at Zapadnaya Litsa. There was a serious accident involving the reactor and 9 people died of radiation injuries. Attempts to repair the reactor were futile; hence the entire submarine was scuttled at a depth of 50 meters in Stepovogo Bay at Novaya Zemlya in 1981, see picture below.[248]

Foto, 21 kb. Foto, 27 kb.

Endnotes

[246] Morskoj sbornik, No. 8 - 1993. Return
[247] Ibid. Return
[248] Yablokov, A. V., Facts and problems related to radioactive waste disposals in seas adjacent to the territory of the Russian Federation, Moscow 1993. Return