From 19 to 22 June 2023, the Human Diving and Underwater Intervention Expert Center (CEPHISMER) is organizing a saturation dive, called NSRS 2023.1, in its hyperbaric center (CH 500).
This type of diving aims to consolidate the procedure for safely evacuating the crew of a submarine thanks to the rescue submarine of the NSRS (NATO Submarine Rescue System).
For the CEPHISMER teams, this dive makes it possible to meet multiple training objectives. They conduct an NSRS table, that is to say the decompression procedure to bring the crew back to atmospheric pressure and will experience the temporary interruption of the decompression procedure in order to bring medical personnel into the hyperbaric enclosure. The personnel of the Armed Forces Medical Service, who intervene as part of a rescue operation, are also trained. Finally, it is the competence of CEPHISMER staff to prepare and conduct a saturation dive that is maintained.
The four divers selected for this dive stayed in pressure for 26 hours at a depth of 20 meters in an atmosphere mixing oxygen and nitrogen. This was followed by a 40-hour decompression phase to return to the surface, with a stop at 11 meters for medical training.