16. The loss of Thresher vindicated many of Rickover’s views
In April, 1963, during a controlled test dive, USS Thresher was lost with all hands and several civilian contractors aboard. Though the exact cause of the vessel’s sinking remains unknown, it was widely believed to have begun when a brazed pipe fitting failed, causing water to spray on electrical equipment, shorting it out, and beginning an accident chain which doomed the ship. The hull imploded after it passed crush depth. Subsequent surveys of the wreck site, in the 1960s and again in the 1980s, revealed no leakage of radiation from the submarine’s reactor plant. Rickover’s exacting standards, which applied only to the reactor and its immediate support equipment, maintained reactor safety even in the catastrophic loss of the ship. In 1968 the United States lost a second nuclear submarine, USS Scorpion. Surveys of its wreckage likewise revealed no radiation leakage, even after two decades.
The loss of Thresher vindicated Rickover’s long-held views that the standards he applied to the reactor plant should be adopted throughout the submarine which is propelled. Contractors balked, as the more rigid standards ate into profits, caused cost overruns, and delayed delivery dates. Retrofitting existing submarines took longer, and operational commanders found they had not enough ships to meet commitments. Rickover continued to fight for more rigid standards, earning more enemies, but for the most part, getting his way. He stressed reactor safety, crew safety, and equipment safety, in that order, as paramount over all other considerations. He made equipment standards higher, rather than allowing them to ease, despite the insistence of ship builders and contractors the standards were unreasonably restrictive. Rickover’s strict adherence to standards and budgets earned him the support of Congress and made it difficult for his superiors to retire him.