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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.
Dhananjay B. Talange, B. Bandyopadhyay, Akhilanand Pati Tiwari
Nuclear Technology | Volume 138 | Number 3 | June 2002 | Pages 217-237
Technical Paper | Nuclear Plant Operations and Control | doi.org/10.13182/NT02-A3290
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
The paper presents the design of state feedback control for a large pressurized heavy water reactor (PHWR) by developing a reduced-order model for the same. The nonlinear mathematical model of the PHWR is linearized around an operating point corresponding to full-power operation of the reactor. The linear model has 14 inputs and outputs each and 56 states. Application of the reduction technique leads to a simplified model characterized by only 14 states. This 14th-order simplified model is used to design a linear quadratic regulator, and state feedback gains for the original 56th-order system are obtained without any significant difficulty. The transient performance of the closed-loop system is tested by simulation of the original nonlinear model of the PHWR.
