Nuclear Navy

This article discusses how atomic weapons had been the vision and accomplishment of physicists. The very limited space available would require a high power-density reactor and would present unprecedented heat transfer challenges. Diesel electric submarines had to surface to run air breathing engines, which needed to charge their batteries. Range and submerged time of a submarine with a reliable nuclear propulsion system would be limited only by food supply and endurance of the crew. The rumor among the first nuclear submariners was that they would surface every 4 years to reenlist. The reason that the submarine was the first application of controlled nuclear power is a tribute to the vision of another man. Back in 1953, while the Nautilus was being constructed, Rickover’s naval career appeared to be over. The Navy’s promotion process was not favorable for an engineering duty officer. Nuclear power put Rickover even farther out of the promotion mainstream.