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Access anywhere, anytime: Nuclear power, Ice Camp, and Rickover’s enduring standard of excellence
Admiral William Houston
As U.S. Navy submarines surface through Arctic ice during Ice Camp 2026, they demonstrate more than operational proficiency in one of the harshest environments on Earth. They reaffirm a technological truth first proven in August 1958, when the USS Nautilus completed its submerged transit of the North Pole: nuclear power enables access anywhere, anytime.
The Arctic is unforgiving, with vast distances, extreme cold, shifting ice, and no logistical infrastructure. Conventional propulsion is constrained by fuel, air, and endurance. Nuclear propulsion removes those constraints. Only a nuclear-powered submarine can operate anywhere in the world’s oceans, including under the polar ice, undetected and at maximum capability for extended periods. Nuclear power provides sustained high speed and the endurance to reposition across the globe without refueling.
Sridhar Hari, Yassin A. Hassan, Jiyuan Tu
Nuclear Technology | Volume 130 | Number 3 | June 2000 | Pages 296-309
Technical Paper | Thermal Hydraulics | doi.org/10.13182/NT00-A3095
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
Simulations of two different events without scram were conducted for a hypothetical research reactor, based on the High-Flux Australian Reactor (HIFAR) moderated and cooled by heavy water circulating under atmospheric pressure. The simulations were performed with the RELAP5/MOD3.2 computer program. Although the simulations neglected reactivity feedback effects, the focus on the thermal-hydraulic aspects represents a step toward full analyses of hypothetical events in HIFAR. Two simulations focused on events associated with the failure of the primary coolant circulation pumps, and three simulations focus on the events associated with the reduced heat removal via the nonavailability of heat exchangers. The critical heat flux subroutine of the RELAP program was modified to account for the concentric annular fuel element geometry of HIFAR fuel elements.