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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.
Tay-Jian Liu, Show-Chyuan Chiang
Nuclear Technology | Volume 136 | Number 2 | November 2001 | Pages 204-220
Technical Paper | Thermal Hydraulics | doi.org/10.13182/NT01-A3239
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
The current emergency operating procedures (EOPs) for a three-loop pressurized water reactor on a total loss-of-feedwater (LOFW) incident are experimentally evaluated at the Institute of Nuclear Energy Research Integral System Test (IIST) facility. Four experiments were conducted with a different number of pressurizer power-operated relief valves (PORVs) and centrifugal charging pumps (CCPs) engaged in performing the primary-side bleed-and-feed operation. In addition, the effect of opening a pressure vessel venting-path was also evaluated. The focus was on the effectiveness and adequacy of current EOPs and the observation of associated thermal-hydraulic phenomena. The test results indicated that the current EOPs can function well in mitigating the consequences of a LOFW event provided that at least two fully opened PORVs and one actuated CCP are used. The opening of a pressure vessel venting path during the bleed-and-feed operation is helpful in the primary system depressurization but has little effect to increase the pressure vessel coolant inventory. However, by opening one PORV, precaution for the reactor coolant system (RCS) integrity should be taken for system overpressurization caused by insufficient heat removal capability. Furthermore, an effective control of restored feedwater to a low injection rate is favorable to minimize the thermal stress in the RCS pressure boundary.