I have to ask then- Has there been any decent advancements in undersea exploration as of late?
Do people still use a nuclear power source in this day and age, and if so, what kind of risks do those ships harbor?

Military submarines are designed for stealth and speed. They're not meant for deep ocean diving. At the depths where some little robot mini-sub is just getting started on it's descent, a military sub would be crushed. Just too much surface area. They don't really need depth in most cases, and the deepest military subs only go like ~1,000 feet down.

By comparison, the men who went to the bottom of the Marinas Trench in the 60s were about 35,000 feet down when they touched bottom.

There have been some recent advances in submarine rescue and escape technology. The British are really the pioneers in that area.

Do people still use a nuclear power source in this day and age, and if so, what kind of risks do those ships harbor?

Yes, and the plants are based on tried and trusted technology, mostly Pressurized Water Reactors. The Indian sub that exploded likely wasn't a nuclear powered sub, but The US, Russia, China, France, Great Britain, and maybe a handful of other nations operate nuclear subs.

All US military submarines are nuclear powered.

As to the safety. The containment is fantastic. Submarine PWRs are designed to avoid meltdowns at all costs, and relatively speaking, don't generate anywhere as much power as a civilian nuclear plant. Their main function is to just generate power without requirement for oxygen.

PWRs are ideal for subs, because even if EVERYTHING goes wrong, and there is a meltdown, the sub itself and the massive amounts of water around it make for containment of the situation. The meltdown risk at civilian PWRs, which are scaled much larger, is made worse by the fact containment isn't so perfect.

The US Navy in particular has a great safety record with it's nuclear reactors, with no major incidents despite until numbers of reactors being operated. Granted, we have lost two nuclear subs (Thresher and Skorpion), but not due to the reactors. If you live in a coastal town where a US Navy submarine or supercarrier has docked, you've been in the presence of their reactors. On rare occasion, green peace will protest them. In general though, civilian plants, due to both design and oversight differences, are far more likely to have an incident.

Further reading on PWRs and whatnot with nukes...

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-e.....nment-14060913

Thanks for this! Glad to learn a little bit more than I did before today.

despite untold numbers*

I can imagine such a work enviroment would be rife with danger, one imagines it could almost compare to Space Travel in terms of potential for disaster, you'd have to have some serious balls for that line of work.

Also, I'm pretty sure Nuclear Submarines wouldn't be allowed to dock in NZ either!

NZ has strict Nuclear Free Zone laws. No vessel with nuclear propulsion or weapons may dock unless it's an emergency.

A non-nuclear USN destroyer was scheduled to dock in NZ a few years back. NZ officials asked if the vessel carried nuclear depth charges (a weapon obsolete and retired by that time), and the Captain refused to confirm or deny if his ship carried such weapons. The NZ officials refused entry, and the USN and NZ have had a sensitive situation since. NZ for a while wasn't guaranteed US military protection over the incident. In some ways, the relationship is better now, but there's still hiccups from time to time.

http://www.nzedge.com/nz-navy-to-vi.....e-in-30-years/

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/a.....ectid=10816983

http://www.military.com/daily-news/.....ip-visits.html

The core though, is the US Navy is big and while they liked to place assets whereever they want, they also know denying the NZ Navy the right to dock in their ports is very restrictive right back. The USN has had success docking nuclear ships in other nuclear unfriendly foreign ports. The last US operational non-nuclear carrier, the Kitty Hawk, was stationed in Japan for years, since the Japanese aren't exactly warm over US nuclear technology. They allowed nuclear carriers since, but this was after a lot of schmoozing and before the Fukushima meltdown.

You're unlikely to see a USN nuclear powered ship unless you come back to the US during Fleet Week or there's one docked in Australia and you visit.

I suppose our anti nuclear policies are a wee bit outdated, but perhaps I'm bias because I'm of the firm opinion it's not something we need around here.
In reality, it's a matter of principle, New Zealand does NOT do Nuclear Power, be it in the form of ships, or power plants, the latter because of the potential danger. Let's avoid a debate here for now, and stick with the submarines, at least.

I don't mind NZ sticking to their guns, especially when a nation like America says 'well the consequences will be x' and you grin and say 'okay'.

Nuclear Free Zones are more asinine in places like small towns where nobody is ever going to build a nuke anyway, like Davis, CA. There it's just a message without a purpose.

PWRs were born in the submarine business. They were never really meant to be scaled up. The work well in submarines, but their dominance of civil plants makes little sense apart from the fact we never really researched any other options.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-e.....nment-14060913

Woah. I wanna test my luck. If i die. I would know i died in a way i wouldve wanted; baptized

What?

Yea. In a way i find it peacefull. Dying by submersion.(yea i know im a freak yada yada yada) just saying if i died i would want to die like that.

Drowning is terrifying, and most subs that have catastrophes and get crushed don't involve the men dying by drowning, but instead by fire, steam line rupture or the diesel effect.

The last one is, the sub's inner volume of air remains constant, even if the sides cave in, increasing air density, and the density of dusts, gases or oils in the air, and with the sudden compression it heats said mixture rapidly, resulting in the AIR ITSELF catching fire.

There is hardly a pleasant way to die on a sub.

Ohhloyshit! Changed my mind! Not wanna die on a sub!