CHAPTER 24 



NUCLEAR POWER PLANTS 



Nuclear reactors release nuclear energy by 

 the fission process and transform this energy 

 into thermal energy. While we are learning more 

 daily about the phenomena which occur in nuclear 

 reactions, the knowledge already gained has been 

 put to use in both the submarine and the surface 

 fleets. The Navy is now in the second decade of 

 the utilization of nuclear energy for ship pro- 

 pulsion. 



Nuclear engineering is a field that is in the 

 stage of rapid development at the present time; 

 therefore the discussion in this chapter is limited 

 to the basic concepts to reactor principles. The 

 discussion of nuclear physics is limited to the 

 fission process, since all power reactors in 

 operation at this time use the fissioning of a 

 heavy element to release nuclear energy.^ 



ADVANTAGES OF NUCLEAR POWER 



A major advantage of nuclear power for any 

 naval ship is that less logistic support is re- 

 quired. On ships using conventional petroleum 

 fuels as an energy source, the cruising range 

 and strategic value are limited by the amount 

 of fuel which can be stored in their hulls. A 

 ship of this type must either return to port to 

 take on fuel or refuel for a tanker at sea— an 

 operation which is time consuming and hazar- 

 dous. 



Nuclear -powered ships have virtually un- 

 limited cruising range, since the refueling is 

 done routinely as part of a regular scheduled 

 overhaul. On her first nuclear fuel load, the 

 USS Nautilus steamed 62,562 miles, more than 

 half of this distance fully submerged. The USS 

 Enterprise steamed over 200,000 miles before 



For a discussion of nuclear fusion, see John F. 

 Hogerton, The Atomic Energy Deskbook (New York: 

 Reinhold Publishing Corp., 1963), p, 196. 



being refueled. In 1963, Operation Sea Orbit, a 

 30,000-mile cruise around the world in 65 days, 

 completely without logistic support of any kind, 

 proved conclusively the strategic and tactical 

 flexibility of a nuclear-powered task force. 



There are other (and perhaps less obvious) 

 advantages of nuclear power for aircraft car- 

 riers. For one thing, tanks that would otherwise 

 be used to store boiler fuels can be used on 

 nuclear-powered carriers to store additional 

 aircraft fuels, thus giving the ship a greater 

 striking potential. Another advantage is the lack 

 of stacks; since there are no stack gases to 

 cause turbulence in the flight deck atmosphere, 

 the operation of aircraft is less hazardous than 

 on conventionally powered ships. 



The fact that a nuclear-powered ship requires 

 no outside source of oxygen from the earth's 

 atmosphere means that the ship can be com- 

 pletely closed off, thereby reducing the hazards 

 of any nuclear attack. This greatly increases 

 the potential of the submarine fleet by giving 

 it the capability of staying submerged for ex- 

 tended periods of time. In 1960 the nuclear- 

 powered submarine USS Triton completed a 

 submerged circumnavigation of the world, trav- 

 eling a distance of 35,979 miles in 83 days and 

 10 hours. 



NUCLEAR FUNDAMENTALS 



At the present time there are 103 known 

 elements of which the smallest particle that 

 can be separated by chemical means is the 

 atom. The Rutherford-Bohr theory of atomic 

 structure (fig. 24-1) describes the atom as 

 being similar to our solar system. At the 

 center of every atom is a nucleus which is 

 comparable with the sun; moving in orbits 

 around the nucleus are a number of parti- 

 cles called electrons. The electrons have a 

 negative charge and are held in orbit by the 

 attraction of the positively charged nucleus. 



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