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[cdn-nucl-l] More data on K19



Found just one site on the entire internet with some REAL data on the
actual K19 submarine accident info (with footnotes in Russian!).  

WARNING: Although I've read the movie, like any Hollywood production,
takes a lot of liberties with the true story plot, basically the entire
movie plot is below...

Note, the Roentgen is a unit of exposure.  According to
http://www.neosoft.com/~wendt/snm96/BasRad.html
Exposure: The products of radioactive decay events transfer energy to
the materials through which they travel. One approach to looking at this
is to consider the ionization of air produced by X-rays and gamma rays
(not alphas, betas or neutron radiation). One roentgen represents
2.58e-4 coulombs/kg.

And from: http://www.ieer.org/ensec/no-4/units.html
Roentgen: The old unit of radiation exposure. It is a unit of gamma
radiation measured by the amount of ionization in the air. In non-bony
biological tissue, a roentgen delivers a dose equal to about 0.93 rad. 

More on units of exposure below the K-19 story...

http://wwnavy.tripod.com/Russia/k19.htm
On 12 August 2000 a modern submarine Kursk was lost at Barents Sea. The
Russian Navy has attributed the disaster to a collision with an alien
submarine, perhaps an American one. This incident sparked a lot of
interest in issues of safety of shipping and military activities in high
seas, oddly resulted in yet another scandal, which also features the
Russian Navy on one side, and the Americans on the other one. Although
this time the target of their ramming became not a ship, but the memory
of the lost Soviet sailors. It started when someone in Hollywood got the
idea to produce a blockbuster about the 40 years old tragedy - the
nuclear reactor shutdown aboard the Soviet submarine K-19 in the North
Atlantic. Through my connection in St.Petersburg I managed to contact
the St.Petersburg Association of Former Submarine Sailors, and some of
its members - the president, Rt.Cmdr.Kurdin, and survivors of K-19:
former chief of combat section (undersea), Rt.Cmdr.Mukhin; former chief
of combat section (missile), Rt.Cmdr.Shabanov; former chief of
navigation section, Rt.Cmdr.Kovalkov; former chief of navigation
section, Rt.Lt.-Cmdr.Yerastov; and former chief of electricians (8th
compartment), Rt.Sn.P.O.Kuzmin. I will quote their stories in the
present article. But first of all - a historical note. 

The works on the first Soviet nuclear submarines started in 1956. The
Russians were rivalling with the Americans, who at that time started
realisation of their own program Polaris. The Soviet submarines were
built in Severodvinsk under the project code 658. Those were three deck
missile cruisers having 6,000t displacement and 26-knot speed. They
could stay two months undersea. Three ballistic missiles, each with 1.4
megaton warhead, were placed behind their kiosks. They also carried
torpedoes. But the most important - they were powered by two nuclear
reactors, which provided uninterrupted energy supply to all the ship
systems. Building of the first series of Soviet nuclear submarines was
not unnoticed by the American naval intelligence, and they got the
codename Hotel. It is hard to say why Hotel; perhaps due to the comfort
offered to the crew of 104 - each submariner had his own bunk. Of course
a submarine is not a hotel, so the kitchen compensated the discomforts
of the extended submarine sailing. Soviet submariners were in abundance
supplied with high quality Cabernet, chocolate, fruits, and many other
delicacies typical rather for hotels and restaurants. 

The first submarine of the series was named K-19. She was laid on 17
October 1958, and launched on 8 April 1959. An ominous accident happened
during the ceremony - the bottle of champagne used for the baptism did
not break at once. The commander of the submarine, Lt.-Cmdr. Nikolai
Zateyev could not see it, for he was busy with paperwork and had to meet
officials. And the sailors dared not to tell him about the accidents -
political officers would promptly knock "superstitions" out of their
minds. And so K-19 became the most unlucky submarine in the Soviet Navy
- she was literally haunted by accidents. In the summer 1961 she took
part in the manoeuvres in the Atlantic Ocean, codenamed Polar Circle.
The navy was exercising its missile power, and co-operation of surface
ships and submarines. K-19 had to be tried in all the possible ways.
Everything was excellent for a while... 

The troubles began on 4 July at 4:15, when the watch officer reported
dramatic drop of the cooling liquid pressure in the first circuit of the
port reactor. As it turned later, the pipe broke, and the radioactive
coolant burst through the crack. It caused increased radioactivity in
several compartments; according to further measurements - up to 1000
Rt/hr, while the health care standards deem a single dose of 400 Rt
lethal to humans. Peanuts when compared to the danger of the reactor's
meltdown and nuclear explosion. Yet even the loss of a submarine could
seem peanuts, as compared to the nuclear Armageddon, which could follow.
No naval regulations had foreseen such a situation. When the commander
studied nuclear technologies at the nuclear centre in Obninsk near
Moscow, he was assured that the reactor was absolutely reliable if
handled properly. An emergency council of officers and engineers was
hastily summoned in the central compartment. They unanimously made the
decision to mount an emergency cooling circuit. An extra pipe had to be
welded to the damaged circuit, and the cooling liquid had to be pumped
through it. There was no other option. The work itself was not a
difficult one, but it had to be done in the reactor's active zone. And
that meant sure death. There the captain's authority ended. He could not
order to do it and to die. All he could do was to tell everybody what
was the situation, and its consequences. A catastrophe was minutes
away... 

The official press-release was laconic: In those circumstances the crew,
while demonstrating great heroism and self-sacrifice, managed to prevent
the development of a nuclear catastrophe, and to save its submarine,
which returned to service after the repairs and decontamination.1 It did
not say a word, that the incident had taken lives of 28 Soviet
submariners. Eight of them, who absorbed lethal doses of radiation (up
to 5000 Rt), past away in a hospital ashore several days later, and
further 20 of them died within several years due to consequences of high
radiation. At such a price they saved their other comrades of arms - 129
men. 

After the loss of Kursk the price for the blood of Soviet sailors in the
movie industry soared. American audience, overfed with video-thrillers,
demands more excitement spiced with a fresh plot - a sort of spirit,
which can be taken for reality as watched in the comfort of a
home-theatre. America is a great place to make a buck; no wonder that
the Hollywood dream factory was swift to meet the demand. As early as in
the autumn 2000 there was created the company K-19 Production Inc.,
which hired Hollywood movie stars for the roles of Soviet sailors, and
organized their meeting with the survivors of K-19. V.A.Shabanov says: 

During that meeting American movie producers told us, that they wanted
to make a film about "human courage". We asked immediately - show us the
screenplay. To have the proper understanding of human courage one at
least needs to happen in a pretty mess. They nodded in return - oh, yes.
But they did not give us the screenplay. Finally, the St.Petersburg
association of submariners managed to get the text. We read it and we
got mad.2

I.K.Kurdin adds: 

Four years ago some American movie company addressed the Navy
authorities to help with production of a film about the incident aboard
K-19. Then in 1997 another company approached with a similar project.
And they too asked the St.Petersburg submariners' association to
organize a meeting with K-19's crewmen. We insisted from the very
beginning, that the rights of submariners to the privacy of their lives
be observed. And the other our demand was to let the crew read the
screenplay. We were said - yes, sure, you will get it.3

But they did not get it. Instead, another strange story took place. The
Americans produced several contracts with some K-19's crewmen, who
allegedly consented to the use of their names and biographies in the
film. Yet the inquired sailors could not remember signing any contracts,
and the signatures, featured on those papers, look different from their
signatures on other documents. The sailors claim, that the signatures
were faked. 

Nevertheless, they managed to get to the text of the screenplay. And if
one asks them what exactly is there that they do not like, they say -
everything! From the beginning to the end. They cannot even find a
proper word for it; in fact there is a word, but not a proper one - in
English it is spelled with four letters... I am not going to quote here
this piece of... art. And it is not because I am afraid to be sued over
violation of copyrights. The ordinary human decency would not let me to
do so. Because it would be like peeping into a certain medical
institution, the one where they do not have too many door-handles, right
at the moment where one did not let the patients to finish watching the
Wizard of Oz. And so they have an animated discussion - how did it
finish? Because the whole this screed should rather be attached to its
author's health history, than hit the movies: 

many scenes are placed in the 10th compartment of the submarine, which
had only eight of them, 
sailors steal oranges; for that officers beat them with sticks, 
sailors and officers alike tank booze around with some breaks for
brawling, 
the submarine is leaking (during combat patrol!); sailors cover holes
with paint, 
crewmembers communicate almost entirely by the means of lingo and
swearing, etc., etc., etc. 
Anything has changed from the times, when in Moscow polar bears
allegedly used to hunt for pedestrians outside the Bolshoi Theatre? Let
us rather give the floor to the crewmembers themselves: 
V.A.Kovalkov: What disturbs us the most in this screenplay? The lies,
preposterous lies. They portray us as drunkards. It looks like during
the patrol all we do is drinking vodka, playing cards, and swearing. And
with a danger in sight we allegedly fall in panic. Under the name of our
glorious K-19 they show some pirate submarine with the crew resembling a
bunch of anarchists, or half-drunken cowboys from American movies.4

V.A.Shabanov: They don't even understand what kind of people they try to
sully in their film. Our K-19 was the first Soviet nuclear submarine
with ballistic missiles - you can imagine how thoroughly was the crew
selected. All the officers with university degrees, four of them had
diplomas with distinction; 70% of sailors had technical education. Each
of them spent 9 months in a training unit, where he mastered his
submarine function. For a year they all studied at the nuclear centre in
Obninsk. And Americans dare to portray them as rogue savages! Our first
officer Vaganov once said - "if we announce now, that we're hiring
volunteers to serve aboard the first nuclear missile submarine in the
Soviet Union, there won't be getting rid of them; they'll shatter the
recruitment offices".5

Yu.F.Mukhin: Americans tried to portray us as a bunch of angry, always
quarrelling one with another guys, deprived of comradeship. The best
proof that it's a lie, is the fact that we all - the sailors of K-19 -
we've been and we still are a crew. And we unanimously speak against
attempts to disgrace the eternal memory of the dead, and the honour and
dignity of the alive.6

Yu.V.Yerastov: This American screenplay is a mixture of malice and the
utter ignorance. Just imagine - according to it our squadron leader sits
atop the reactor's hatch and drinks pure spirit from a water bottle.
They certainly have no clue, that such a stunt is just technically
impossible. Whatever American authors think, a nuclear reactor is not a
potty. In order to sit on it one would need to unseal the hardware
bulkhead, which is under vacuum. That would cause unsealing of the
reactor itself.7

Yu.F.Mukhin: Or take such a detail - they came up with the film title
K-19: The Widowmaker. They don't even realize, that she made only two
widows, because the crew's average age was 22.5 years, and most of them
did not have families.8

The basic plot of the American screenplay is simple - mutual hatred of
the captain and his first officer. The captain is a despotic tyrant
(Harrison Ford), the first officer (Liam Neeson) looks like a democrat.
When the reactor malfunctions, the captain keeps drinking undisturbed,
and the first officer is locked in his own cabin. As soon as the alarm
goes off, the crew panics. The democratic first officer leads an armed
mutiny of the sailors, who demand landing on the American soil - a
crystal dream of New Russians A.D.2001 in the 1961 entourage. I have
seen Harrison Ford's better performances. This only proves that Russia
alone ceased the Cold War, while the United States keep waging it with
the former zeal. In the distant 1961 the submariners of K-19, in the
United States dubbed as "Hiroshima", went to the compartments
contaminated by lethal radiation to save their ship, their mates, and
the whole world, with America in first place. Chernobyl could have
happened 20 years earlier, and closer to the United States. On their
very National Day. The "made in Hollywood" nuclear hell offers a set of
standard thrills: scintillating wires, clouds of poisonous vapours,
meters going crazy, people going crazy... The tragedy transforms into a
colourful farce. In fact everything was way calmer, and way more
frightening. 

When the reactor aboard K-19 malfunctioned, it simultaneously shut off
radio communication. And as the situation in the damaged reactor was
approaching to meltdown, the world at the same pace was approaching to a
global thermonuclear war. The crew managed to fix reactor's compensation
bars, but the raising temperature menaced with clinkering it into one
mass and that would be pregnant with a nuclear catastrophe. The chief of
the nuclear reactor compartment, Lieutenant Boris Korchilov was the
youngest officer aboard. To the fresh graduate of a naval college, it
was the first "big sea". It was not his job to crawl into the
contaminated compartment, into 1000-Rt hell. He could remain on his
post, and save his life. No martial court would find him guilty of
anything. But who would do the job better than a nuclear engineer? It
was the imperative to locate the damage and start repairs as soon as
possible. It was impossible to stay in the compartment longer than 10
minutes. Yet he volunteered to go. At the hatch Zateyev stopped him:
Boris, do you realize what are you going for? He answered: I certainly
do, Sir. With him Seamen Savkin, Kharitonov, Kashenkov, Ordochkin,
Starkov, Ryzhkov and Penkov went to the inevitable death. What kind of
cretin can portray them as a confused, panicking riffraff? Only the one,
who in similar situation would be the first to jump off board with his
mate's life jacket. People with such a mentality are incapable to
comprehend what does it take to volunteer to step into the radioactive
hell, while others are being dragged out of there with terrible
radiation burns, and the volunteer knows, that this is his fate too. 

Ten minutes were like the whole eternity. The invisible, inaudible,
insensible rays were destroying people; others went to cover for them.
The first officer, Captain Yuri Povstyev, who allegedly was locked up in
his cabin, led the second party. When Korchilov removed the
gas-protector from his face, yellowish foam started drooling from his
mouth. The ship doctor was already at hand with his medical post, but
what could he do with his pills and milk against the monstrous doses of
radiation? They ionized all the bodily liquids of those, who were
exposed to the radiation. Their bodies began to swell visibly. Their
faces grew red. Pus discharges came from the roots of their hair. Their
eyelids and lips swell beyond recognition. Hardly able to move their
swollen tongues, they only complained of pain in the entire body.
Swearing, lamenting, and cries for revenge are entirely a sick-minded
Hollywood product. B.F.Kuzmin remembers: 

I was in the aft compartments during and after the reactor's malfunction
and shutdown. The order came to the crew to abandon aft compartments and
to gather at the central post. I was there when they carried unconscious
sailors, who repaired the cooling system. It was a horrible sight: their
faces, necks, and hands were all swollen from radioactive burns. And
suddenly it comes out, that there's still some work to do, and so
someone has to go into that hell, and to be dragged out in a half or one
hour burnt with invisible rays. The entire nuclear staff by then was
dysfunctional. So then their comrades volunteered to step into that
hell. Yenin was the first, he asked: who will go with me? Kulakov and
Svishch immediately stepped out. Is it called a panic in American
language? 9

After 40 years the memory fails on Kuzmin, so V.A.Kovalkov adds: 

As the reactor was shut down, the crew was gathered in the bow, where
the radioactivity was lower. The other reactor was shut down too. The
submarine became motionless. A diesel submarine was already hastening
with rescue. But every minute in the contaminated compartments was
inexorably shortening lives of K-19's sailors. And then, to save the
lives of others, someone had to sacrifice his own one, and go again to
the contaminated compartment, turn the reactor on, and set the ship in
motion. Three volunteers were needed. And so Boris Fedorovich Kuzmin
without a hesitation went to the reactor compartment. Second to him was
the secretary of the youth organization, and third was the secretary of
the party section.10

But the memory fails on Kovalkov too. He forgets to mention that he
himself was the secretary of the party section. 

It took an hour and a half to mount the pipe and to start pumping the
coolant again. Another hour to cool the reactor down to a safe state.
The commander ordered to give everybody a hundred grams of vodka - a
token of gratitude for their deeds. Usually the heroism is perceived
solely as a certain spiritual impulse. It is not customary to admit that
heroes usually sacrifice their lives for someone else's slovenliness.
The investigation of the K-19 accident found its cause very easily - it
was a tiny drop of cold metal negligently left in the pipe welding.
Under the pressure it dropped out, and created the fateful leak. A
little hack-work of a welder, a little negligence of a quality assurance
officer... When the soviet leader, Nikita Khrushchev, was presented with
the request of posthumous award of Boris Korchilov with the title of the
Hero of the Soviet Union, he resolved: We don't award for disasters.
N.Khrushchev. Thus the first person in the state indirectly approved the
hack-work of a welder, negligence of the quality assurance, and
inconsideration of designers, who forgot to foresee what the crew had to
cope with. And this silent approval acted for years and resulted in more
accidents, out of which K-19 was the first. 

Yet I have a legitimate question: why do the Americans try to portray
Soviet submariners like a sort of penalty battalion comprised of
marihuana-doped Vietnam War dodgers? Is there any other reason than the
primitive ignorance? Is it worth 150 million dollars they want to invest
in the project? 

Yu.V.Yerastov: I think they really see us like a sort of savages. Or
rather - they want to see us like that. To them we're second class
people: always begging for something, and always yelping that they won't
survive without foreign help. But do not confuse those, who go abroad
with the hand held out for a sop, with us, navy officers. We're used to
go to America's coasts not with the hand helt out, but with ballistic
missiles.11

V.A.Shabanov: I want to add something else. Americans, who have
concocted the film closely co-operate with Nikita Mikhalkov's Studio
TTT. Obviously they want to demonstrate the film in our country, it
means they will make the audience (everybody believes in movies) to look
at our Navy through American eyes. A classical Reaganite scenario:
Russia = empire of evil.12

The American movie company was ready to offer $1000 a head to any K-19's
crewmember, who would became an extra in the film. Shabanov was also
offered quite a buck for keeping his mouth shut and not speaking against
the film in public. Their answer was in open letters, addressed to
Harrison Ford, and the Navy commander-in-chief, Fleet Admiral Vladimir
Kuroyedov. In the latter they emphasize: 

A group of American movie producers (K-19 Production, Intermedia et al.)
together with the Russian Nikita Mikhalkov's company TTT is about to
begin shootings for a feature film about the tragedy of SSGN K-19 along
the screenplay, which deeply insults the honour and dignity of her
crewmembers, dead and alive alike. Moreover, this screenplay is
insulting to the whole Russian Navy: it portrays in a mocking way
service and life of submariners, maliciously misrepresents the nature of
service and personal relations of the crewmembers (notorious drinking,
brawls, violence, crew's total technical illiteracy, lack of drill and
discipline, and submariners' low moral standards). We have learnt that
the representatives of the TTT company have started preliminary
shootings on Navy object, having permission from Vice-Admiral Ilyin.
[...] We earnestly ask you, Vladimir Ivanovich, to examine the existing
situation, and terminate The Russian Navy's participation in production
of this unworthy film.13

As I write this article, the Russian support for the film has been
withdrawn, and the filmmakers have moved to Halifax, Nova Scotia. But
with all the due respect to the Russian Navy, are there only veterans
willing to defend the honour of their Ensign? They addressed the
commander-in-chief, but filmmaking it is not his job. Where is their
Supreme Commander? Here he has a good opportunity to support his
patriotic declarations with deeds. Especially that they do not require
any extraordinary heroism. Instead, he puts it in legal chicanery plane,
and tries to figure out whether the honour has an equivalent in dollars
or roubles. He might want to learn about the ways his predecessors used
to solve politically sensitive issues. 

A 19th-century Russian chancellor, Karl Robert Nesselrode, once humbly
snitched to the czar, Nicholas I, on Commodore Gennadiy Nevelskoy: the
latter, while exploring the Russian Far East, founded there a Russian
outpost, and raised the Russian Ensign. This caused England's protests
and other diplomatic troubles. According to the chancellor, the culprit
should have been reduced in ranks. Yet the czar promoted Nevelskoy to
the Admiral. And as to his initiative, which caused such a heartburn in
London, he said: Where the Russian Ensign once was raised, it just
cannot be lowered. 
And another story featuring the same czar Nicholas I. In Paris they once
wanted to stage a play about Catherine II, in which the Russian empress
was portrayed in a rather frivolous way. Nicholas I, through his envoy
in Paris, expressed his disappointment to the French government. In
return he was said, that the spectacle would not be cancelled, since
France enjoyed the freedom of speech. Nicholas I replied that if so, he
would like to order tickets for 30 divisions of spectators. As soon as
his answer reached Paris, the spectacle was promptly cancelled. 
So, Mr.Putin experiences no lack of historical examples. The question
is, which one will he follow? That of Nesselrode, or that of Nicholas I?



Paul Neumann


------------------------------------------------------------------------
--------

1 В этих условиях экипаж, проявив высокое мужество и самоотверженность,
сумел предотвратить развитие ядерной катастрофы и спасти свою подлодку,
которая после ремонта и дезактивации снова вступила в строй. 

2 На той встрече американские кинодеятели заявили, что хотят снять фильм
о "человеческом мужестве". Но мы сразу сказали: Покажите сценарий. Ведь
чтобы иметь правильное представление о мужестве, надо, по крайней мере,
самому побывать в подобной переделке. Они в ответ кивают головой: О,
йес. Но сценарий почему-то не дают. И вот только благодаря помощи
Санкт-Петербургского клуба подводников нам удалось его достать.
Прочитали и ахнули. 

3 Четыре года назад одна из американских кинокомпаний обратилась к
руководству ВМФ с просьбой оказать помощь в создании фильма об аварии на
К-19. Потом в 1997 году возникает еще одна американская кинокампания с
аналогичным проектом. А наш Санкт-Петербургский клуб подводников они
просили организовать встречу с членами экипажа К-19. Однако мы с самого
начала настаивали на соблюдении прав наших подводников на историю их
личной жизни. А второе наше непременное условие было таким - ознакомьте
экипаж со сценарием. На это нам сказали - да, хорошо, вы его получите. 

4 Что возмущает нас в американском сценарии? То, что это ложь и ложь
злонамеренная. Нас изображают там пьяницами, будто бы весь поход мы
только и делаем, что пьем водку, играем в карты, материмся, а при первых
признаках опасности якобы впадаем в панику. Под именем нашей славной
К-19 они изобразили какую-то пиратскую субмарину с экипажем более
напоминающим махновскую вольницу или полупьяных ковбоев из американского
вестерна. 

5 Они даже не понимают каких людей они тщатся замарать своим фильмом.
Ведь наша К-19 был первой советской атомной подлодкой с баллистическими
ракетами - так можете себе представить, как тщательно туда подбирали
экипаж! Офицеры все с высшим образованием, четверо с красными дипломами,
70 процентов матросов имели за плечами техникум. Каждый из них помимо
этого еще 9 месяцев провел в учебном отряде, где досконально изучил свою
специальность подводника. Почти год все учились в атомном центре
Обнинска. И таких людей американцы смеют изображать невежественными
дикарями! Наш старпом Ваганов как-то раз сказал: "Если только мы сейчас
объявим - кто желает служить на первом в Советском Союзе атомном
подводном ракетоносце - так от желающих отбоя не будет, военкоматы
разнесут. 

6 Американцы собирались изобразить наш экипаж сборищем озлобленных,
вечно ссорившихся друг с другом людей, лишенных внутренней спайки. И
лучшим доказательством того, что это ложь является то, что мы все,
моряки К-19 - мы были и остаемся сейчас экипажем. И сейчас как единый
экипаж мы выступаем против попыток опорочить светлую память павших,
честь и достоинство живых. 

7 Американский сценарий - это сплав злобы и дремучего невежества. Вот,
например, по сценарию наш командир дивизиона движения сидит на крышке
реактора и из фляги пьет чистый спирт. Им, конечно, и невдомек, что
проделать эту операцию просто технически невозможно. Реактор - это все
же не ночной горшок, чтобы по этому поводу не думали американские
киношники. И чтобы сесть на крышку, надо сперва разгерметизировать
аппаратную выгородку, которая находится под вакуумом, а это означает
разгерметизацию самого реактора. 

8 Или возьмите такую подробность - задуманное американцами название
фильма: "К-19": оставляющая вдов". Они даже не знают, что осталось-то
всего две вдовы, потому что средний возраст экипажа был 22,5 года и
подавляющее большинство еще не успело обзавестись семьями. 

9 Я находился в кормовых отсеках и после того, как случилась авария и
заглушили реактор, последовала команда всем покинуть кормовые отсеки и
перейти в центральный пост. И я там находился, когда из зараженных
отсеков выносили потерявших сознание моряков, которые монтировали там
систему проливки реактора. Смотреть на них было страшно: шея, лицо, руки
в струпьях от радиоактивных ожогов. И тут выясняется, что там надо еще
что-то доделать и значит, кому-то снова идти в это пекло, чтобы через
полчаса-час тебя вот так же вынесли спаленным невидимыми лучами. А вся
штатная команда по обслуживанию реактора уже к тому времени вышла из
строя. И вот тогда, совершенно добровольно в этот ад пошли наши
товарищи. Енин вызвался первым, спросил: Кто готов со мной? И тут же
вперед шагнули Кулаков и Свищ. И это, по мнению американских киношников,
- паника? 

10 Когда случилась авария, весь личный состав вывели в нос лодки - там
ниже радиоактивность, а для этого пришлось заглушить и другой реактор.
Лодка осталась без хода. А к нам на помощь уже спешила дизельная
подлодка. Но каждая лишняя минута в насыщенных радиоактивным излучением
отсеках неумолимо сокращала жизнь моряков К-19. И тогда, чтобы спасти
жизнь всех, кто-то должен был рискнуть своей - снова зайти в зараженный
отсек, запустить реактор и дать лодке ход. Решили послать туда трех
человек. И вот Борис Федорович Кузьмин без колебания пошел в реакторный
отсек. Вторым вызвался секретарь комсомольской организации, а третьим на
пульт управления пошел секретарь партийной организации лодки. 

11 Я думаю, они нас действительно видят такими дикарями. А точнее -
хотят видеть такими. Мы для них люди второго сорта: вечно чего-то просят
и постоянно твердят, что без иностранной помощи не проживут. Только не
надо путать тех, кто ходит за границу с протянутой рукой за подаянием, и
нас, русских, советских офицеров. Мы то привыкли ходить к берегам
Америки не с протянутой рукой, а с баллистическими ракетами. 

12 А я сейчас хочу сказать о другом. Американцы, задумавшие этот фильм,
тесно сотрудничают со студией Никиты Михалкова "ТТТ". Значит, наверняка
они собираются пустить этот фильм в прокат и в нашей стране, то есть
будут заставлять наших людей (в кино то верят все) смотреть на наш флот
американскими глазами. Ну, то есть прямо по Рейгану: Россия - империя
зла. 

13 Группа американских кинокомпаний (К-19 Production, Intermedia и др.)
в сотрудничестве с российской фирмой ТТТ Никиты Михалкова приступает к
съемкам художественного фильма о трагедии ПЛАРБ К-19 по сценарию,
который глубоко оскорбляет честь и достоинство членов экипажа, как
живых, так и погибших. Более того, этот сценарий оскорбителен для всего
Военно-морского флота России: в сценарии в карикатурном виде
представлены служба и быт подводников, злостно искажен характер личных и
служебных взаимоотношений членов экипажа (огульное пьянство, драки,
рукоприкладство, полная техническая безграмотность личного состава,
отсутствие воинской дисциплины, низкий моральный уровень подводников).
Как нам стало известно, представители кинокомпании ТТТ уже начали
подготовку съемок на объектах ВМФ с разрешения вице-адмирала Ильина.
[...] Убедительно просим Вас, Владимир Иванович, разобраться в
сложившейся ситуации и воспрепятствовать участию Военно-морского флота
России в съемках этого недостойного фильма. 

More on exposure...

http://www.orcbs.msu.edu/radiation/radmanual(html)/radmanunits.html
Units of Exposure
The Roentgen, abbreviated as "R", is the unit for measuring the quantity
of x-ray or gamma radiation by measuring the amount of ionization
produced in air. One Roentgen is equal to the quantity of gamma or
x-radiation that will produce ions carrying a charge of 2.58 x 10-4
coulombs per kilogram of air. An exposure to one Roentgen of radiation
with total absorption will yield 89.6 ergs of energy deposition per gram
of air. If human tissue absorbs one Roentgen of radiation, 96 ergs of
energy will be deposited per gram of tissue. (The international units do
not include the Roentgen, but simply use the amount of energy deposited
in air as the descriptive term.)

The Roentgen is easy to measure with an ion chamber, an instrument that
will measure the ions (of one sign) produced in air by the radiation.
The ion chamber has a readout in Roentgen per hour or fractions thereof,
and is an approximation of tissue exposure. The ORCBS, National
Superconducting Cyclotron Laboratory (NSCL) and other departments with
the potential for external radiation exposures use ion chambers for
measuring exposure potential. It is a useful instrument for gamma
radiation; however, it is not quantitatively accurate for alpha, beta or
neutron radiation.

The rad and the rem are the two main radiation units used when assessing
radiation exposure. The rad (radiation absorbed dose), is the unit of
absorbed dose, and refers to the energy deposition by any type of
radiation in any type of material. (The international unit for absorbed
dose is the Gray; it is defined as being equal to 100 rads.) One rad
equals 100 ergs of energy deposition per gram of absorber.

The rem (radiation equivalent man) is the unit of human exposure and is
a dose equivalent (DE). (The international or SI unit for human exposure
is the Sievert, which is defined as equal to 100 rem.) It takes into
account the biological effectiveness of different types of radiation.
The target organ is important when assessing radiation exposures, and a
modifying factor is used in radiation protection to correct for the
relative biological effectiveness (RBE or quality factor). Also, the
chemical form of the radiation producing the dose is of critical
importance in assessing internal doses, because different chemicals bind
with different cell and/or organ receptor sites.

Additionally, some types of radiation cause more damage to biological
tissue than other types. For example, one rad of alpha particles is
twenty times more damaging than one rad of gamma rays. To account for
these differences, a unit called a quality factor (QF) is used in
conjunction with the radiation absorbed dose in order to determine the
dose equivalent in rem:

rem dose = rad dose x QF x other modifying factors

Tissue weighting factors, Wt, are used for incorporating the actual risk
to tissues for different radioisotopes and tissues in dose calculations.
These weighting factors assign multiplication factors for increasing or
decreasing the actual biological risk to a given tissue.
Another way to evaluate risk to an individual for internal intakes of
radioactive material is the use of body retention class, D, W or Y.
These classes stand for Days, Weeks or Years of retention time in the
human body and are specified in the Title 10 CFR 20 limits in the
Appendix B. This classification is based on the chemical form of the
radioactive material, which affects the biochemical pathway and
resultant target organ, therefore determining the retention time.

The dose rate is proportional to the radiation flux (number of particles
or photons/square centimeter/second) and is expressed in rem/hour or
mrem/hour. (Radiation dosimeter readings are reported in mrem units).
The dose rate can be estimated by using an ion chamber when the
radiation source is a gamma or x-ray emitter. The ion chamber is useful
in estimating dose for beta radiation, but special detectors for alpha
or neutron radiation are required.