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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.
Norihiro Doda, Yasushi Okano, Hisashi Ninokata
Nuclear Technology | Volume 144 | Number 2 | November 2003 | Pages 175-185
Technical Paper | Thermal Hydraulics | doi.org/10.13182/NT03-A3438
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
A numerical simulation thermal-hydraulics code called SPOOL based on computational fluid dynamics considering sodium reaction and aerosol transport is developed. Sodium pool fires are simulated using the SPOOL code, and periodic oscillation of the flame is observed with frequency similar to that observed for small-scale pool fire experiments with industrial fuels. The calculated mass-burning rate differs slightly from experimental results, yet it increases with pool temperature in agreement with experimental trends. The mass flux of aerosol driven by thermophoresis is calculated to be about 100 times larger than that by gravity, and the aerosols become concentrated at the edge of the pool. The release fraction, obtained by dividing the total mass of aerosol released into the atmosphere by that produced, increases with pool temperature in qualitative agreement with experiments.