Editing Hyman G. Rickover (section)

=== Safety record ===
Rickover's stringent standards are largely credited with being responsible for the U.S. Navy's continuing record of zero reactor accidents (defined as the uncontrolled release of fission products to the environment resulting from damage to a reactor core).<ref name=bowman>{{cite web | title = Statement of Admiral F. L. "Skip" Bowman | date = 2003-10-29 | access-date = 2009-03-08 | url = http://www.navy.mil/navydata/testimony/safety/bowman031029.txt | archive-date = June 29, 2006 | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20060629082752/https://www.navy.mil/navydata/testimony/safety/bowman031029.txt | url-status = dead }}</ref> He made it a point to be aboard during the initial sea trial of almost every nuclear submarine completing its new-construction period.<ref>{{Cite book|title=Power at Sea, Vol 3: A Violent Peace, 1946–2006|url=https://archive.org/details/poweratseabreaki02libg|url-access=limited|last=Rose|first=Lisle A.|publisher=University of Missouri|year=2006|page=[https://archive.org/details/poweratseabreaki02libg/page/n73 55]}}</ref> Following the [[Three Mile Island accident]] on March 28, 1979, Admiral Rickover was asked to testify before Congress in the general context of answering the question as to why naval nuclear propulsion had succeeded in achieving a record of zero reactor-accidents, as opposed to the dramatic one that had just taken place.<ref name="bowman" />

The accident-free record of United States Navy reactor operations stands in some very stark contrast to those of the Soviet Union, which had [[Nuclear submarine#Accidents|fourteen known reactor accidents]]. As stated in a retrospective analysis in October 2007:

<blockquote>U.S. submarines far outperformed the Soviet ones in the crucial area of stealth, and Rickover's obsessive fixation on safety and quality control gave the U.S. nuclear Navy a vastly superior safety record to the Soviet one.<ref>{{Cite news | last = Sieff | first = Martin | title = BMD Focus: O'Reilly moves up&nbsp;– Part 1 | work = UPI Energy| date = 2007-10-04 }}</ref></blockquote>