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Navy with ships powered by nuclear energy

A nuclear navy, or nuclear powered navy, refers to the portion of a navy consisting of naval ships powered by nuclear marine propulsion. The concept was revolutionary for naval warfare when first proposed. Prior to nuclear power, submarines were powered by diesel engines and could only submerge through the use of batteries. In order for these submarines to run their diesel engines and charge their batteries they would have to surface or snorkel. The use of nuclear power allowed these submarines to become true submersibles and unlike their conventional counterparts, they became limited only by crew endurance and supplies.

Currently, only the United States and France possess nuclear powered aircraft carriers. The United States Navy has by far the most nuclear powered aircraft carriers, with ten carriers and one carrier in service. The last conventionally powered aircraft carrier left the U. S. fleet as of 12 May 2009, when the USS Kitty Hawk was deactivated. France's latest aircraft carrier, the French aircraft carrier Charles de Gaulle, is nuclear powered. The United Kingdom rejected nuclear power early in the development of its s on cost grounds, as even several decades of fuel use costs less than a nuclear reactor. Since 1949 the Bettis Atomic Power Laboratory near Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania has been one of the lead laboratories in the development of the nuclear navy. The planned indigenous Chinese carriers also feature nuclear propulsion.

The United States Navy operates the largest fleet of nuclear submarines. Only the United States Navy, the Royal Navy of the United Kingdom, and France's Marine Nationale field an all nuclear submarine force. By 1989, there were over 400 nuclear powered submarines operational or being built. Some 250 of these submarines have now been scrapped and some on order cancelled, due to weapons reduction programs. Russia and the United States had over one hundred each, with the United Kingdom and France fewer than twenty each and China six. The Indian Navy launched their first indigenous nuclear powered submarines on 26 July 2009. India is also operating one nuclear attack submarine with talks of leasing one more nuclear submarine from Russia. India plans to build six nuclear attack submarines and follow on to the Arihant class of ballistic missile submarines.

The US had several nuclear cruisers. The cruisers were the USS Bainbridge, USS California, USS Long Beach, USS Truxtun, USS South Carolina, USS Virginia, USS Texas, USS Mississippi, and USS Arkansas. The Long Beach was deemed too expensive and was decommissioned in 1995 instead of receiving its third nuclear refueling and proposed upgrade. It was sold for scrap in 2012 at Puget Sound Naval Shipyard. Currently the United States does not have any nuclear cruisers. Russia has four s, though only one is active, the other three being laid up. The command ship SSV 33 Ural, based on the Kirov class, is also laid up. Seven civilian nuclear icebreakers remain in service: four of six s, the two Taymyr class icebreakers Taymyr and Vaygach, and the LASH carrier and container ship Sevmorput.

By 2003 the U. S. Navy had accumulated over 5,400 "reactor years" of accident free experience, and operated more than 80 nuclear powered ships.

Admiral Hyman G. Rickover, (1900–1986), of the United States Navy, known as "father of the nuclear navy"
was an electrical engineer by training, and was the primary architect who implemented this daring concept, and believed that it was the natural next phase for the way military vessels could be propelled and powered. The challenge was to reduce the size of a nuclear reactor to fit on board a ship or submarine, as well as to encase it sufficiently so that radiation hazards would not be a safety concern. Soon after World War II, Rickover was assigned to the Bureau of Ships in September 1947 and received training in nuclear power at Oak Ridge, Tennessee. In February 1949 he received an assignment to the Division of Reactor Development, U. S. Atomic Energy Commission and then assumed control of the United States Navy's effort as Director of the Naval Reactors Branch in the Bureau of Ships. This dual role allowed him to lead the efforts to develop the world's first nuclear powered submarine, Nautilus, which was launched in 1954. As Vice Admiral, from 1958, for three decades Rickover exercised tight control over the ships, technology, and personnel of the nuclear navy, even interviewing every prospective officer for new nuclear powered navy vessels.

Leading nuclear physicist Philip Abelson (1913–2004) turned his attention under the guidance of Ross Gunn to applying nuclear power to naval propulsion. Their early efforts at Naval Research Laboratory (NRL) provided an early glimpse at what was to become the nuclear Navy.

At the present time, many important vessels in the United States Navy are powered by nuclear reactors. All submarines and aircraft carriers are nuclear powered. Several cruisers were nuclear powered but these have all been retired. United States naval reactors are given three character designations consisting of a letter representing the ship type the reactor is designed for, a consecutive generation number, and a letter indicating the reactor's designer. The ship types are "A" for aircraft carrier, "C" for cruiser, "D" for destroyer, and "S" for submarine. The designers are "W" for Westinghouse, "G" for General Electric, "C" for Combustion Engineering, and "B" for Bechtel. Examples are S5W, D1G, A4W, and D2W. Most information concerning United States naval reactors is not secret—see Naval Nuclear Propulsion Information.

Country 1st PWR fabricated 1st PWR acquired 1st vessel Commissioned NotesUnited States 1953 USS Nautilus (SSN 571) 1955 World's first nuclear submarine / vesselUSSR 1958 K 3 Leninsky Komsomol 1958 United Kingdom 1965 1962 HMS Dreadnought (S101) 1963 HMS Dreadnought utilised an imported US S5W reactor, with HMS Valiant (S102) carrying the first UK built Rolls Royce PWR, in 1966. Germany 1968 Otto Hahn (ship) 1968 Commercial ship, scrapped in 2009France 1970 Redoutable (S611) 1971 Japan 1970 Mutsu (nuclear ship) 1972 Decommissioned 1992China 1973 Han (S401) 1974 Russia 1992 1992 K 419 Kuzbass 1992 The Russian navy inherited approximately 250 nuclear powered vessels from the Soviet navy, in January 1992. India 2016 1988 INS Chakra 1998 Soviet submarine K 43, leased in 1988, and Russian submarine Nerpa (K 152), leased in 2012, have both carried the INS Chakra name. INS Arihant is India's first indigenously constructed nuclear submarine, commissioned in 2016. Brazil 2018 Brazilian submarine Álvaro Alberto exp. 2029 Currently under construction the SN 10 Álvaro Alberto is to be the first nuclear vessel of the Brazilian navy, its reactor, the Brazilian Multipurpose Reactor, was launched in 2018 and is currently under trials, the hull will be an expanded version of the Scorpène class submarine.