S1W reactor

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The S1W nuclear reactor was a Westinghouse Electric Corporation-built naval reactor. The designation "S1W" can be translated as follows:

S - Submarine propulsion plant 1 - The first reactor model by the primary contractor W - Westinghouse, the primary contractor

The S1W propulsion plant was built at the National Reactor Testing Station near Arco, Idaho. The S1W reactor used pressurized water as the coolant and neutron moderator in its primary system, and its fuel elements contained enriched Uranium-235. The plant was the prototype for the USS Nautilus (SSN-571), the world's first nuclear-powered submarine. Under the leadership of Hyman Rickover, Naval Reactors followed a concurrent design strategy, overseeing the design and construction of the S1W reactor ahead of the design and construction of the Nautilus, enabling problems to be identified and resolved in the shipboard plant. To better support this process, the S1W plant was built inside of a submarine hull. While this inhibited engineers from obtaining information on some plant components (due to cramped spaces), it provided a much more realistic example of how the shipboard plant would have to be constructed.

The S1W reactor reached criticality on March 30, 1953. In May of that year, it began power operations, performing a 100 hour run that simulated a submerged voyage from the east coast of the United States to Ireland. This test run clearly demonstrated the revolutionary impact that nuclear propulsion would have upon the submarine, which prior to that time was greatly limited in its ability to conduct continuous underwater operations by battery life and by the oxygen requirement of diesel propulsion systems.

Following the commission of the Nautilus, the S1W plant was operated to support plant testing and training of operators in the Naval Nuclear Propulsion Program. S1W was shut down permanently in 1994.


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References

  • Hewlett, Richard G. and Francis Duncan. Nuclear Navy: 1946-1962. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 1974.
  • FAS Military Analysis Network. "Nuclear Propulsion." URL [1] Retrieved March 18, 2005.
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