Submarines in Brisbane.....?

[ChanceSchmerr]

.....I guess, not so much!

I remember when we took our warship up the Brisbane river in 2019, we were checking out seawater intakes/sea bays and filters/strainers for jellyfish, but I think it was jellyfish "offseason" for us luckily when we arrived. We did hear some good stories of Strainers just being clogged with "blue goo" from jellyfish intake.....

https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2022/mar/11/jellyfish-nuclear-submarine-emergency-reactor-shutdown-brisbane-base-moreton-bay-australia

Jellyfish would ‘inevitably’ force nuclear submarines into shutdown if based in Brisbane, expert says

Exclusive: leading marine scientist says Moreton Bay, one of three sites shortlisted, is bad choice due to risk to reactors if jellyfish sucked in

Experts says if nuclear submarines are based in Brisbane they will be at risk of emergency reactor shutdown from jellyfish. Photograph: James Ross/AAP

Australia’s nuclear-powered submarines would “inevitably” be forced into an emergency reactor shutdown by swarms of jellyfish if the fleet was based in Brisbane, a leading marine scientist says.

The Australian government this week released a shortlist of three sites – Brisbane, Newcastle and Wollongong – as a potential east-coast home port for the nuclear submarine fleet, which will arrive in about 2036 under the Aukus partnership with the US and the UK.

The Queensland government has been cagey when asked whether it supports a base in Brisbane, a position described as “very strange” by the federal defence minister, Peter Dutton, whose electorate is in Brisbane.

“There are many thousands of jobs that are associated with such a facility,” Dutton said last week.

“You’ve got to make judgments about whether there’s capacity within a particular port structure to accommodate that additional work.”

Jellyfish expert Lisa-ann Gershwin, a leading marine biologist, says Brisbane is “close to the absolute worst place” for a nuclear submarine base, due to the conditions in Moreton Bay and the frequent jellyfish blooms.

In 2006, the US nuclear-powered supercarrier USS Ronald Reagan was forced into an emergency reactor shutdown in Brisbane after it sucked more than 800kg of jellyfish into its condensers, hindering coolant from reaching the main reactors.

“Picture if you will America’s biggest, most expensive, most fearsome, awesome supercarrier is on its maiden voyage,” Gershwin said.

“It comes into the port of Brisbane and it sucks in thousands of jellyfish. It was a very embarrassing situation for the American navy. Luckily there was no major accident, nothing happened, nothing exploded.

“But when you’re dealing with nuclear anything, you’ve got to be [more cautious].”

The phenomenon of jellyfish shutdowns is surprisingly common in any power plant that sucks in water as a coolant.

Gershwin says any base for a submarine with an in-built nuclear reactor could not be enclosed like Moreton Bay, which is sheltered by Moreton Island and North Stradbroke Island.

“Jellyfish act like plastic,” Gershwin said.

“If you’ve ever seen a pool filter that’s got a plastic wrapper caught, it clogs up … and floods all over the place because it’s not going through the filter. The water gets stopped by this ‘plastic’ and then the water can’t pass by that. Emergency shutdowns of power plants happen all the time, very frequently.”

Gershwin said that if Brisbane was used to base nuclear submarines, a jellyfish shutdown would be “inevitable”.

“There aren’t many things as a scientist that I would say are inevitable, but this is. I couldn’t tell you what day or time it would happen, but I can tell you it would happen.

“You’ve got to be really careful about where you put these things. Anywhere that you’ve got warm water, you’re going to have jellyfish. Moreton Bay is just sucked in with jellyfish.”

Brisbane ranked eighth of the sites considered by Defence as a potential submarine base in 2011, with Sydney listed as the best choice.

Defence was contacted for comment.

[El Presidente]

it's election time !

 

I am a dumb bastard but I would have thought having the base in Northern Australia might be a tad smarter. 

New Zealand and Fiji can largely be ruled out as threats 🙂

[ChanceSchmerr]

1 hour ago, El Presidente said:

it's election time !

 

I am a dumb bastard but I would have thought having the base in Northern Australia might be a tad smarter. 

New Zealand and Fiji can largely be ruled out as threats 🙂

Having seen Fiji's infrastructure up close, I definitely agree on that point 

Base location should be based more on existing support infrastructure, proximity to industry, etc. The stealth nature of the boats means that placing them closest to the threat isn't as much of a benefit beyond time to intercept. Easier to conceal where it's going if it's not directly pointing at your adversary too...

I havnt been to Darwin/NA though, so I can't comment on what they could bring to bear. 

You're further along than we are though. We'd need working boats before we would need a base for them....lol

[Fuzz]

1 hour ago, El Presidente said:

it's election time !

 

I am a dumb bastard but I would have thought having the base in Northern Australia might be a tad smarter. 

New Zealand and Fiji can largely be ruled out as threats 🙂

We need the base in Tasmania, to protect us from any territorial incursions from Antarctica!

[yossie]

3 hours ago, ChanceSchmerr said:

The Australian government this week released a shortlist of three sites – Brisbane, Newcastle and Wollongong – as a potential east-coast home port for the nuclear submarine fleet, which will arrive in about 2036 under the Aukus partnership with the US and the UK.

The problem probably will happen if they actually get new subs... I doubt It won't unlikely.🤭

[Squarehead]

Look at the bright side,this would be one way to reduce the population of jellyfish

[El Presidente]

2 hours ago, ChanceSchmerr said:

I havnt been to Darwin/NA though, so I can't comment on what they could bring to bear. 

 

Darwin port is the obvious choice........except that we leased it to a Chinese conglomerate 

[GoodStix]

7 minutes ago, El Presidente said:

....except that we leased it to a Chinese conglomerate 

If only we allies thought carefully as long term as the PRC

[Fuzz]

35 minutes ago, El Presidente said:

Darwin port is the obvious choice........except that we leased it to a Chinese conglomerate 

Subs are already at Darwin port. They're just not Australian....

[Ken Gargett]

4 hours ago, El Presidente said:

it's election time !

 

I am a dumb bastard but I would have thought having the base in Northern Australia might be a tad smarter. 

New Zealand and Fiji can largely be ruled out as threats 🙂

you want to make it easier for anyone to take it? at least in brizzy they have to go an extra couple of thousand kilometres. they might get lost. 

darwin is out because it is already owned by the chinese and as much as i love darwin from a number of fabulously fun visits, good luck finding anyone who stays sober for 24 hours. hey, i can even provide you with incriminating photos of the chief coroner. not many places one can say that about. 

as for jellyfish, must say i have not seen that mentioned here. but if jellyfish are going to stop nuclear subs, why would anyone even bother with a defence budget? 

[PigFish]

You guys are getting the old ships. Congress recently met regarding this problem and decided the best fix was to put the intake above the water line on a tube…. 🤪