Midge Ure – Diesel engines still onboard nuclear submarines

Well we still have diesel engines onboard submarines, so if the reactor was to not work, or to fail, you have a battery onboard but that battery it’s rechargeable but you need to be able to recharge it, so you have either a diesel or two diesel engines onboard that you can quickly flash up, but they’re the very last option because you appreciate that you’ve got to bring in air.

When you see a submarine dieseling, it’s inherently just under the surface with some sort of exhaust or snort mast stuck up, so you’re not covert anymore, so that’s the last option.

So, you hope to be able to exist … so nuclear submarines effectively live under the water the whole time and can only do so if the reactors working.

If the reactor shuts down for any period of time, you have a finite amount of time to get to restore the reactor to it’s normal operating capacity, or else your battery runs out, and then you have to break silence and break water.