Brit nuke sub scare is a red herring

According to this article, a recent power failure at a British nuclear submarine facility was comparable to the Fukushima power station accident:

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/nuclear-scare-at-navy-submarine-base-after-unbelievable-failures-8861361.html

Not so fast! Although these power failures were unusual, the reactor cores were probably not in danger for the following reasons:

• Nuclear submarine reactors have emergency cooling systems which require no electrical power to function, and
• Nuclear submarine reactor cores have a relatively small thermal output compared to commercial power reactors and a relatively small amount of decay heat when they are shutdown.

In addition, the "decommissioned" sub mentioned in the article probably didn't even have a reactor core aboard.

Not to worry, US/UK nuke subs are relatively safe. It's the Russky ones you have to worry about.

By the way, in a former life I was the chief engineering officer of an operating nuclear sub and supervised the decommissioning of another, so I do know what I'm talking about.