S1W reactor

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The S1W reactor was the first prototype naval reactor used by the United States Navy to prove that the technology could be used for electricity generation and propulsion on warships. The S1W designation stands for:

S = Submarine platform
1 = First generation core designed by the contractor
W = Westinghouse was the contracted designer

The land-based nuclear reactor was built at the National Reactor Testing Station near Arco, Idaho. The plant was the prototype for the USS Nautilus (SSN-571), the world's first nuclear-powered submarine.

[edit] Design

Under the leadership of Hyman Rickover, Naval Reactors followed a concurrent design strategy, with the design and construction of the S1W reactor taking place ahead of the design and construction of the Nautilus. This enabled problems to be identified and resolved before they appeared in the shipboard plant. To better support this design process, the S1W power plant was built inside of a submarine hull. While the cramped spaces prevented engineers from obtaining information on some plant components, it provided a much more realistic example of how the shipboard plant would have to be constructed.

[edit] Operation

The S1W was a pressurized water reactor that utilized water as the coolant and neutron moderator in its primary system, and enriched Uranium-235 in its fuel elements. The S1W reactor reached criticality on 30 March 1953. In May of that year, it began power operations, performing a 100 hour run that simulated a submerged voyage from the east coast of the United States to Ireland. This test run clearly demonstrated the revolutionary impact that nuclear propulsion would have upon the submarine, which prior to that time was greatly limited in its ability to conduct continuous underwater operations by battery life and by the oxygen requirement of diesel propulsion systems.

Following the commission of the Nautilus, the S1W plant was operated to support plant testing and training of operators in the Naval Nuclear Power School. S1W was shut down permanently in 1994.

[edit] References

Hewlett, Richard G. and Francis Duncan. Nuclear Navy: 1946-1962. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 1974.
Nuclear Propulsion by the Federation of American Scientists, Retrieved: 18 March 2005.

United States Naval reactors

Aircraft carrier reactors:

A1B | A1W | A2W | A3W | A4W

Cruiser reactors:

C1W

Destroyer reactors:

D1G | D2G

Submarine reactors: