United States Naval Reactors

United States Naval Reactors

United States Naval reactor refers to nuclear reactors used by the United States Navy aboard certain ships to produce power for propulsion, electric power, catapulting airplanes in aircraft carriers, and a few more minor uses. Such Naval nuclear reactors have a complete power plant associated with them. All US Navy submarines and supercarriers built for the past couple of decades are nuclear-powered by such reactors. There are no commissioned conventional (non-nuclear) submarines or aircraft carriers left in the US Navy, since the last conventional carrier, USS Kitty Hawk, was decommissioned in May 2009. The US Navy had nine nuclear-powered cruisers with such reactors also, but they have since been decommissioned. Reactors are designed by a variety of contractors, then developed and tested at one of several government (Department of Energy)-owned and prime contractor-operated facilities. These facilities include Bettis Atomic Power Laboratory in West Mifflin, PA and its associated Naval Reactors Facility in Idaho, and Knolls Atomic Power Laboratory in Niskayuna, NY and its associated Kesselring site in West Milton, NY, all under the management of the office of Naval Reactors. Sometimes there were full-scale nuclear-powered prototype plants built at the Naval Reactors Facility, Kesselring, and Windsor Locks (in CT) to test the nuclear plants, which were operated for years to train nuclear-qualified sailors.

Read more about United States Naval Reactors:  Reactor Designations, History, Power Plants

Famous quotes containing the words united states, united, states and/or naval:

    The rising power of the United States in world affairs ... requires, not a more compliant press, but a relentless barrage of facts and criticism.... Our job in this age, as I see it, is not to serve as cheerleaders for our side in the present world struggle but to help the largest possible number of people to see the realities of the changing and convulsive world in which American policy must operate.
    James Reston (b. 1909)

    Emblem: the carapace of the great crowned snail is painted with all the flags of the United Nations.
    Mason Cooley (b. 1927)

    I would rather be known as an advocate of equal suffrage than to speak every night on the best-paying platforms in the United States and ignore it.
    Anna Howard Shaw (1847–1919)

    The world was a huge ball then, the universe a might harmony of ellipses, everything moved mysteriously, incalculable distances through the ether.
    We used to feel the awe of the distant stars upon us. All that led to was the eighty-eight naval guns, ersatz, and the night air-raids over cities. A magnificent spectacle.
    After the collapse of the socialist dream, I came to America.
    John Dos Passos (1896–1970)