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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.
Jie Liu, Seiichi Koshizuka, Yoshiaki Oka
Nuclear Technology | Volume 144 | Number 3 | December 2003 | Pages 324-336
Technical Paper | Thermal Hydraulics | doi.org/10.13182/NT03-A3448
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
A computer code PROVER-II is developed for the propagation phase of a sodium vapor explosion. A new thermal fragmentation model is proposed that includes three kinds of timescales for modeling the instant fragmentation, spontaneous nucleation fragmentation, and normal boiling fragmentation. The pressure wave propagation in a sodium vapor explosion is analyzed and compared with that in a steam explosion. The energy conversion ratio of an in-vessel sodium vapor explosion is calculated by using hydrodynamic and thermal fragmentation mechanisms, and sensitivity analyses are carried out for some parameters. The initial thermal conditions for energetic fuel-coolant interactions in a sodium system are examined. Results show that the high saturation temperature of sodium results in a much lower pressure peak in a sodium vapor explosion compared to a steam explosion, and the mechanical energy release is limited by the mass of melt participating in the explosion during the core disruptive accident in liquid-metal-cooled fast breeder reactors.