S1W reactor
The S1W reactor was the first
The designation of "S1W" stands for
- S = Submarine platform
- 1 = First generation core designed by the contractor
- W = Westinghousewas the contracted designer
and is a later Navy designation. During the plant's early years the project name was "Submarine Thermal Reactor" (STR)
The land-based
Design
Under the leadership of Captain (later Admiral) Hyman G. Rickover, Naval Reactors followed a concurrent design strategy, with the design and construction of the S1W reactor taking place ahead of the design and construction of the Nautilus. This enabled problems to be identified and resolved before they appeared in the shipboard plant. To better support this design process, the S1W power plant was built inside of a submarine hull. While the cramped spaces prevented engineers from obtaining information on some plant components, it provided a much more realistic example of how the shipboard plant would have to be constructed.
Operation
The S1W was a
The heated, pressurized water of the S1W reactor power plant was circulated through heat exchangers in order to generate high pressure
Following the
In the mid-1960s, the S1W core was removed. An extension was bolted to the top of the reactor vessel so that a larger S5W reactor core could be installed. After that time the prototype was called S1W/S5W core 4. The new core was first taken critical in late summer of 1967. In order to use the additional power generated by the S5W reactor, additional facilities were added in order to dump the excess steam when the plant was operated at higher power levels. These steam dumps were constructed in the same building, but outside the mock submarine hull.
The S1W/S5W plant was shut down permanently in 1989 (October 17).[2]
References
- ^ "STR (Submarine Thermal Reactor)". Reactors Designed by Argonne National Laboratory. Argonne National Laboratory. Retrieved 2012-05-08.
- ^ Bettis Atomic Power Laboratory
- Hewlett, Richard G. and Francis Duncan. Nuclear Navy: 1946-1962. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 1974.
- Nuclear Propulsion by the Federation of American Scientists, Retrieved: 18 March 2005.
External links
- Stacy, Susan M (2000). "Proving the Principle, A History of The Idaho National Engineering and Environmental Laboratory, 1949-1999", (Chapter 10) [1]
- S1W-related items in the Naval Reactors History Database Archived 2012-03-28 at the Wayback Machine