nuclear powered vessels

I came across this project in a 1968 United States Atomic Energy Commission booklet, The ATOM and the OCEAN, by E. W. Seabrook Hull (can be found on Project Gutenberg here). The National Science Foundation had proposed an Arctic Drift Barge for Arctic research, which would have a nuclear plant...

Does anyone have any information on the French design at least? The program was a precursor to the equally ill-fated (non-nuclear) Polar 8 icebreaker program of the 1980s. The only hard info I have on the French proposal at the moment is that the reactor was a CAS (Advanced Series Boiler)...

As I hate cluttering up the NIGS thread with speculative what-ifs I have finished my tinkering with Hampshire rebuilt with the NIGS as depicted by portions of the NIGS plans. The only non-NIGS radars are for 978 for surface-search and a Mk 10 IFF antenna and the ESM systems. I kept both 'Cooky'...

While virtually all maritime nuclear reactors (save the Soviet Alfas and Papas, which ran on lead-cooled fast reactors with a steam secondary circuit) were light water PWRs, other reactor designs have been prototyped which may be of use for maritime nuclear propulsion. Concepts include direct...

H/t moin1900:

"Will China's Next-Generation Supply Ship be Nuclear-Powered?" "On September 6, 2018, China’s comprehensive supply ship Hongzehu (Hull 881) was honorably retired, marking that the Chinese Navy has entered a new era of modernization. With its retirement, perhaps the country’s next-generation...

"China has opened the bid to construct its first nuclear-powered icebreaker support ship, a move to prepare for the construction of a nuclear-powered aircraft carrier, military observers said. China National Nuclear Corporation on Thursday opened public bidding for the nuclear-powered...

Sorry if this has been flagged previously, I have tried searching, but so far, to no avail. I am (still) reading Hennessy and Jinks' 'The Silent Deep', and have to say it is a very informative tome. There is reference made to discussions held during the period when Dennis Healy was Defence...

List compiled from the excellent book The Silent Deep: The Royal Navy Submarine Service since 1945 BOREAS Class - page 131 1950s diesel-electric SSK. Smaller complement to PORPOISE Class. 1200 tons 'high quiet speed' 4 x TT in bow, 2 x TT in stern Baseline version with twin screws, then single...

From a BBC article on N/S Savannah: http://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-28439159

Hi I attach a file with a non-technical summary of research done at the University of Florida on a gas/vapor core nuclear reactor with MHD conversion for space propulsion. A liquid cooled version with MHD propulsion for navy operations is also presented. If Generation IV reactors are 2...

I have been looking for some drawings or pictures of the unbuilt Verdun aircraft carrier that the French government ordered at the end of the 1950s, but I've been unable to find any. According to wiki, it would have had size and displacement similar to today's Marine Nationale CDG, albeit with a...

Richard J. Aldrich’s recent book ‘GCHQ: An uncensored story of Britain’s most secret intelligence agency’ features some information on the planned Sigint ship of the 1960s. He gives a history elsewhere in the book about the operations of HMS Totem and Turpin in the 1950s. He goes on to say...

To start this thread off, here's a recent article on Nuclear Merchant Ships (part of a series on the peaceful uses of Nuclear power). Includes information on the only four such ships to have been built so far: NS Savannah, USA; Mutsu, Japan; Sevmorput, Russia; and the Otto Hahn, Germany. Also...

From Defensetech.org: A New Breed of Guided Missile Sub May Be Emerging In case you haven’t seen this, submarine maker Electric Boat is pitching the idea of building a stretched Virginia class attack sub capable of carrying up to 194 Tomahawk cruise missiles. Basically, a 90-foot plug would be...

British Trident Subs to Field Enhanced U.S.-Made Warheads Monday, April 4, 2011 The United Kingdom's nuclear-armed ballistic missile submarines are to receive an enhanced version of a U.S.-manufactured nuclear warhead, the Federation of American Scientists said on Friday (see GSN, Feb. 7)...

Early design concepts for the US Navy Polaris SSBN also used variations of the Skipjack-class (SSN-585) nuclear attack submarine design originally intended for the Jupiter SSBN. The Polaris missile was so much smaller than the Jupiter that twice as many missiles could be carried in the hull...

Images of a model from the US Navy concept formulation (CONFORM) submarine project from the late 1960s. CONFORM was a possible follow-on to the Permit (SSN 594) and Sturgeon (SSN 637) classes devised by Naval Sea Systems Command (NavSea) circa 1967-68. By November 1968, the initial CONFORM...

http://www.defensenews.com/story.php?i=4226195&c=AME&s=TOP I am assuming a nuclear power plant could also produce a great amount of extra energy for DEW and other exotic "high power energy need" weapons. Any thoughts?

I am looking for information on the planned composition of USN carrier battle groups, and the wider USN, in the early 1960's with particular reference to nuclear powered surface ships. As I understand it, it was initially planned to construct 6 Enterprise class ships and 10 Long Beach class...