Most of you that know me also know that I spent 20 years in the Navy and was in the Submarine Service. As a result of the recent loss of the submersible Titan, I have had numerous questions regarding the incident. Coincidentally while recently searching for a file, I came across an old file labeled “Rickover’s Rules.” Unless you were in the Navy on a nuclear-powered vessel or worked in a nuclear power plant during the 60’s through the early 90’s. you would not know anything about Rickover.
Hyman G. Rickover was one of the most significant figures in the history of the United States Navy. This was not because decisive battles that were fought and won, or demonstrations of uncommon valor, it was because of his extraordinary engineering abilities and amazing leadership and management skills. He spent 63 years on active duty, serving longer than any other Admiral in Naval History or any other military member in any service branch. He was able to create a nuclear-powered vessel in 4 years, USS Nautilus SSN 571, a task that experts believed would take 20 years or more. He was the “Father of the Nuclear Navy.” Rickover also oversaw the development of commercial nuclear power generation. He personally interviewed and selected every officer that served in the nuclear navy. In his over 30 years of overseeing all aspects of Navy nuclear power, there was never a reactor accident, and that trend continues to this day. A direct result of Hyman G. Rickover. He had seven basic rules that were followed to the letter and resulted in the safest work environment I have ever been exposed to. I know from my own personal experience that everyone on all the submarines I served onboard followed them without realizing it. It was a culture that was just normal. Here are his rules:
Rule 1: You must have a rising standard of quality over time, and well beyond what is required by any minimum standard.
Rule 2: People running complex systems should be highly capable.
Rule 3: Supervisors have to face bad news when it comes and take problems to a level high enough to fix those problems.
Rule 4: You must have a healthy respect for the dangers and risks of your particular job.
Rule 5: Training must be constant and rigorous.
Rule 6: All the functions of repair, quality control, and technical support must fit together.
Rule 7: The organization and members thereof must have the ability and willingness to learn from mistakes of the past.
The day-to-day routine on a nuclear submarine is inherently dangerous. Without considering just the radiation aspect, life aboard a submarine exposes the crew to numerous potential hazards such as high pressure steam that can cut you in half and cauterize the wound, freon gas leaks that when exposed to high temperatures create phosgene gas, high pressure air at up to 4500 psi, torpedo fuel, weapons warheads, high pressure hydraulics 3000 psi, fire, flooding, a battery that has enough explosive potential to launch a several thousand ton submarine thousands of feet into the air, sea pressure at 44.4psi per hundred feet. The Gladiator submersible would have been subjected to over 5500 PSI. Then we have operational hazards other vessels both surfaced and submerged. Operating in the Arctic Ocean where we would go hundreds of nautical miles without having ice thin enough to surface, ice bergs, ice keels, freshwater pockets causing loss of neutral buoyancy. We have not discussed potential adversaries. All these things and more with life on a submarine. I can state with all honesty, that within a year onboard my first submarine, I never worried about any of these things again. I trusted my leadership, my shipmates and the ship’s design and equipment. This can be directly attributed to the rigorous training, the qualification requirements, and the work ethic and working environment. Thank you, Hyman G. Rickover.
These rules, if followed could have prevented the loss of the Titan. These rules are applicable in every industrial facility out there. If you manufacture a product or provide a service that requires machinery these rules are for you.