United States naval reactors

United States naval reactors are nuclear reactors used by the United States Navy aboard certain ships to generate the steam used to produce power for propulsion, electric power, catapulting airplanes in aircraft carriers, and a few minor uses.

All commissioned U.S. Navy submarines and supercarriers built since 1975 are nuclear powered, with the last conventional carrier, USS Kitty Hawk, being decommissioned in May 2009.

then developed and tested at one of several Department of Energy-owned and prime contractor-operated facilities: Bettis Atomic Power Laboratory in West Mifflin, Pennsylvania and its associated Naval Reactors Facility in Idaho, and Knolls Atomic Power Laboratory in Niskayuna, New York and its associated Kesselring site in West Milton, New York, all under the management of the office of Naval Reactors.

Research on developing nuclear reactors for the Navy was done at Bettis Atomic Power Laboratory in West Mifflin, Pennsylvania starting in 1948.

Bettis Laboratory and Naval Reactors Facility were operated initially and for many decades afterwards by Westinghouse.

Full-scale land-based prototype plants in Idaho, New York, and Connecticut preceded development of several types (generations) of U.S. naval nuclear reactors, although not all of them.

After initial construction, some engineering testing was done and the prototypes were used to train nuclear-qualified sailors for many years afterwards.

The condition of these reactors has not been publicly released, although both wrecks have been investigated by Robert Ballard on behalf of the Navy using remotely operated vehicles (ROVs).

[citation needed] Congress has mandated that the U.S. Navy consider nuclear power as an option on all large surface combatants (cruisers, destroyers) and amphibious assault ships.

Long-term integrity of the compact reactor pressure vessel is maintained by providing an internal neutron shield.

(This is in contrast to early Soviet civil PWR designs where embrittlement occurs due to neutron bombardment of a very narrow pressure vessel.)

[6] After defuelling, U.S. practice is to cut the reactor section from the vessel for disposal in shallow land burial as low-level waste (see the Ship-Submarine Recycling Program).