Submarine propulsion

Another reactor that was approved for development was a land-based prototype submarine propulsion reactor. Westinghouse Electric Corp. designed this pressurized water reactor, using data collected by Argonne. Built at NRTS, the reactor used enriched uranium, the metal fuel in the form of plates. A similar reactor was installed in the submarine l autilus. 

During World War II the Germans used a mixture of hydrogen peroxide with Diesel oil in torpedo and submarine propulsion. 

Figure 4.11. Proposed submarine propulsion system based on PEM fuel cells and liquid hydrogen and oxygen. (From G. Sattler (2000). Fuel cells going on-board. /. Power Sources 86,61-67. Used by permission from Elsevier.)...

One of the few examples of fuel cell use exclusively for military purposes which (so far) is without its civil analog is that for submarine propulsion described in Section 19.3. 

Strontium ( Sr) is a fission product that is common in spent fuel. Nuclear fuel processing, above ground nuclear weapons testing, and nuclear accidents are primary environmental sources of Sr. Strontium-90 also is released by nuclear power plants, submarine propulsion reactors, and radioactive waste disposal in the oceans. Sr has a half-life of roughly 29 yr. The decay products are Yt (ri/2 = 64 h, with the emission of a 546 keV maximum energy P particle) and then the stable Zr with the emission of a 2284 keV maximum energy p particle from Infre-... 

Starting in the late 1950s, LBE-cooled reactors were designed and built in the Soviet Union for the purpose of submarine propulsion. Eight such submarines were... 

In Russia, two initiatives are currently being pursued. One of these is known as the SVBR (Svintsovo-Vismutovyi Bystryi Reaktor or Lead—Bismuth Fast Reactor ) (Zrodnikov et al., 2009). The SVBR-100 is generally considered a foUow-on technology to the prior submarine propulsion technology and is a small reactor cooled by LBE. The second major initiative, known as the BREST Bystry Reaktor so Svintsovym Teplonositelem or Fast Reactor with Lead Coolant ) (Dragunov et al., 2012), is a medium-sized reactor cooled by pure lead and detailed further in this chapter as one of the reference LFR reactor systems in the Generalion IV program (GIF-LFR-pSSC, 2014). 

But when the United States discovered in September that the Soviet Union had detonated its first atomic device the previous month, a renewed emphasis on military weapons and military reactor applications kept the development of civilian power reactors consigned to a low priority. The subsequent atomic-arms race also helped establish a preference among various reactor designs by giving an edge to Rickover s pressurized-light-water reactor for submarine propulsion. ... 

Meanwhile, GE built the prototype for their sodium cooled reactor at the Kessehing site. West Milton, NY, a location near its Knolls Atomic Power Laboratory (R. G. Hewlett and Duncan, 1974). The SIR, the land-based prototype for GE s sodium cooled reactor for submarine propulsion, reached initial criticality in 1955. The intended value of the sodium reactor was its ability to function at a higher operating temperature. It would thereby generate steam at a higher temperature and produce higher overall plant efficiency. Sodium also provided improved heat transfer compared to water, and would allow lower pressure and thinner walled pressure vessels. The SIR reactor worked to demonstrate these advantages, but was shut down in 1957 (TID 8200, n.d.). 

The AEC also provided considerable support to the Argonne Laboratory, GE and Westinghouse efforts to develop nuclear powered submarine propulsion. Argonne... 

Figure 16.1. The 1951 reactor proposal for submarine propulsion. This was impractical due to the use of graphite and very high temperatures.

Whilst the design would have made a very respectable power reactor, it was certainly ill-suited for submarine propulsion. On the other hand, given the state of the art in Britain in the late 1940s, there were not many other options available. 

The need for a nuclear submarine is not so great... as to justify a recommendation to the Ministry of Supply to take extraordinary steps to develop what is considered to be an interim solution to the submarine propulsion problem. ... 

TNA PRO AB 15/2043. An enriched uranium reactor for submarine propulsion. J Diamond and J Smith. AERE Harwell, September 1951. 

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