USS Nautilus (SSN 571)

Overview

Nautilus was powered by the Submarine Thermal Reactor (STR), later re-designated the S2W reactor, a pressurized water reactor produced for the US Navy by Westinghouse Electric Corporation. Bettis Atomic Power Laboratory, operated by Westinghouse, developed the basic reactor plant design used in Nautilus after being given the assignment on 31 December 1947 to design a nuclear power plant for a submarine.

Rickover set the goal for the first nuclear submarine to go to sea by January 1, 1955. This ambitious target was outlined in internal discussions as early as 1949. A memorandum from the Chief of Naval Operations that year vaguely called for a nuclear propulsion plant to be ready for "operational evaluation and installation in a submarine hull by 1955." However, Rickover proposed a more specific and aggressive goal—to have a nuclear submarine ready for sea by January 1, 1955. Given the nascent state of nuclear technology at the time, this was considered a bold and almost unrealistic objective​. (2)

Rickover and his team worked backward from this deadline, determining that the land-based prototype (Mark I) had to be operational by May 1, 1952, to allow sufficient time for testing and integration into a submarine design. By January 1950, Rickover formally included the nuclear submarine in the Navy’s shipbuilding program proposed for fiscal year 1952, setting the January 1, 1955, completion date as the controlling milestone​. This was done by getting the Atomic Energy Commissions plans for reactor development in order and then undercutting Navy objection by noting that the AEC had a "major portion of its reactor development program scheduled to meet this [January 1955] date." As a result the Navy proposed and Truman authorized construction of a nuclear submarine in 1950 for the 1952 ship program. (2)

Construction of Nautilus proceeded in parallel with the STR Mk 1 (S1W) prototype which reached criticality in March 1953. Nautilus initial criticality followed in Dec 1954 and went to sea for the first time on January 17, 1955 - meeting Truman's dictated at-sea date. This was the initial demonstration of NR's ability to get things done on schedule. This reputation carries forward to today and has been a key to continued support for the Naval Nuclear Propulsion Program. Four months later, Nautilus would cruise from New London to San Juan at an average speed of over 15 knots for the 1,200nm transit. This was a major milestone in proving the viability of nuclear powered submarines.

As further evidence of the potential for nuclear submarines, in August 1957, Nautilus completed a transit from Hawaii to England via the North Pole, all fully submerged.

Nautilus was eventually inactivated in May 1979 and the USS Nautilus National Historical Landmark opened in New London CT in July 1985.