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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.
Igor Slessarev, G. Palmiotti, M. Salvatores, V. Berthou
Nuclear Technology | Volume 146 | Number 3 | June 2004 | Pages 230-243
Technical Paper | Fuel Cycle and Management | doi.org/10.13182/NT04-A3502
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
A new fuel cycle concept - waste-free, intrinsically safe, and efficient (WISE) - based on a "clean" nuclear plant using mobile fuel (MF) is proposed. WISE does not perturb the radiological equilibrium by minimizing transuranium and long-lived-fission product wastes. The main characteristic of WISE is the use of MF systems and of a feed-and-bleed fuel cycle strategy. Irradiated fuel together with fission products always remains inside a WISE core. This implies no release of waste until fuel reserves are available. After the fuel reserves are exhausted, an on-line reprocessing technology can be applied in order to minimize waste.