The Ship-Submarine Recycling Program (SRP) is the process that the United States Navy uses to dispose of decommissioned nuclear vessels. SRP takes place only at the Puget Sound Naval Shipyard (PSNS) in Bremerton, Washington, but the preparations can begin elsewhere.
United States naval reactors are nuclear reactors used by the United States Navy aboard certain ships to generate the steam used to produce power for propulsion, electric power, catapulting airplanes in aircraft carriers, and a few more minor uses. Such naval nuclear reactors have a complete power plant associated with them. All U.S. Navy submarines and supercarriers built since 1975 are nuclear-powered by such reactors. There are no commissioned conventional (non-nuclear) submarines or aircraft carriers left in the U.S. Navy, since the last conventional carrier, USS Kitty Hawk, was decommissioned in May 2009. The U.S. Navy had nine nuclear-powered cruisers with such reactors also, but they have since been decommissioned. Reactors are designed by a variety of contractors, then developed and tested at one of several government owned and prime contractor-operated facilities: Bettis Atomic Power Laboratory in West Mifflin, Pennsylvania and its associated Naval Reactors Facility in Idaho, and Knolls Atomic Power Laboratory in Niskayuna, New York and its associated Kesselring site in West Milton, New York, all under the management of the office of Naval Reactors. Sometimes there were full-scale nuclear-powered prototype plants built at the Naval Reactors Facility, Kesselring, and Windsor to test the nuclear plants, which were operated for years to train nuclear-qualified sailors.
A nuclear-powered icebreaker is an icebreaker with an onboard nuclear power plant that produces power for the vessel's propulsion system. As of 2022, Russia is the only country that builds and operates nuclear-powered icebreakers, having built a number of such vessels to aid shipping along the Northern Sea Route since the Soviet times. Nuclear-powered icebreakers are much more powerful than their diesel-powered counterparts. Although nuclear propulsion is expensive to install and maintain, very heavy fuel demands, limitations on range, and difficulty refueling in the Arctic region can make diesel vessels less practical and less economical overall for these ice-breaking duties.
A nuclear submarine is a submarine powered by a nuclear reactor, but not necessarily nuclear-armed. Nuclear submarines have considerable performance advantages over "conventional" submarines. Nuclear propulsion, being completely independent of air, frees the submarine from the need to surface frequently, as is necessary for conventional submarines. The large amount of power generated by a nuclear reactor allows nuclear submarines to operate at high speed for long periods, and the long interval between refuelings grants a range virtually unlimited, making the only limits on voyage times being imposed by such factors as the need to restock food or other consumables.
Nuclear marine propulsion is propulsion of a ship or submarine with heat provided by a nuclear reactor. The power plant heats water to produce steam for a turbine used to turn the ship's propeller through a gearbox or through an electric generator and motor. Nuclear propulsion is used primarily within naval warships such as nuclear submarines and supercarriers. A small number of experimental civil nuclear ships have been built.
A nuclear navy, or nuclear-powered navy, refers to the portion of a navy consisting of naval ships powered by nuclear marine propulsion. The concept was revolutionary for naval warfare when first proposed. Prior to nuclear power, submarines were powered by diesel engines and could only submerge through the use of batteries. In order for these submarines to run their diesel engines and charge their batteries they would have to surface or snorkel. The use of nuclear power allowed these submarines to become true submersibles and unlike their conventional counterparts, they became limited only by crew endurance and supplies.
The OK-650 reactor is the nuclear fission reactor used for powering the Soviet Navy's Project 685 Плавник/Plavnik (Mike), Project 971 Щука-Б/Shchuka-B (Akula), and Project 945 Барракуда/Barrakuda, Кондор/Kondor, and Марс/Mars (Sierra) submarines, and in pairs to power the Project 941 Акула/Akula (Typhoon) and Project 949 Гранит/Granit and Антей/Antei (Oscar) third generation submarines.
The KLT-40 family are nuclear fission reactors originating from OK-150 and OK-900 ship reactors. KLT-40 were developed to power the Taymyr-class icebreakers and the LASH carrier Sevmorput. They are pressurized water reactors (PWR) fueled by either 30–40% or 90% enriched uranium-235 fuel to produce 135 to 171 MW of thermal power.
The Yasen class, Russian designations Project 885 Yasen and Project 885M Yasen-M, also referred to as the Graney class, are a series of nuclear-powered cruise missile submarines designed by the Malakhit Marine Engineering Bureau and built by Sevmash for the Russian Navy. Design work commenced in earnest in the 1980s with the first submarine built in the 1990s–early 2010s with commissioning in 2013. Two additional boats to a modified Yasen-M design were commissioned in 2021 and six more are under construction. Based on the Akula class and Alfa class designs, the Yasen class is projected to replace the Russian Navy's current Soviet-era nuclear attack submarines. The Akula class is optimised for a hunter-killer role, whereas the Yasen class concept uses the platform as a nuclear guided missile submarine (SSGN).
Floating nuclear power stations are vessels designed by Rosatom, the Russian state-owned nuclear energy corporation. They are self-contained, low-capacity, floating nuclear power plants. Rosatom plans to mass-produce the stations at shipbuilding facilities and then tow them to ports near locations that require electricity.
Akademik Lomonosov is a non-self-propelled power barge that operates as the first Russian floating nuclear power station. The ship was named after academician Mikhail Lomonosov. It is docked in the Pevek harbour, providing heat to the town and supplying electricity to the regional Chaun-Bilibino power system. It is the world’s northernmost nuclear power plant.
The RITM-200 is an integrated generation 3+ pressurized water reactor developed by OKBM Afrikantov and designed to produce 55 MWe. The design is an improvement of KLT-40 reactor. It uses up to 20% enriched uranium-235 and can be refueled every 10 years for a 60 year planned lifespan in floating power plant installation. If installed in a stationary power plant the fuel cycle is 6 years.
The decommissioning of Russian nuclear-powered vessels is an issue of major concern to the United States and to Scandinavian countries near Russia. From 1950 to 2003, the Soviet Union and its major successor state, Russia, constructed the largest nuclear-powered navy in the world, with more ships than all other navies combined: 248 submarines, four Kirov-class battlecruisers, and a missile test ship, as well as nine icebreakers. Many were or are powered by two reactors each, bringing the total to 468 reactors.
OKBM Afrikantov is a nuclear engineering company located in Nizhny Novgorod, Russia. It is a subsidiary of Rosatom. The company is named after Igor Afrikantov.
Project 23000E or Shtorm is a proposal for an aircraft carrier designed by the Krylov State Research Center for the Russian Navy. The cost of the export version has been put at over US$5.5 billion, and as of 2017 development had been expected to take ten years. As of 2020, the project had not yet been approved and, given the financial costs, it was unclear whether it would be made a priority over other elements of Russian naval modernisation.
Project 22220, also known through the Russian type size series designation LK-60Ya, is a series of Russian nuclear-powered icebreakers. The lead ship of the class, Arktika, was delivered in 2020 and surpassed the preceding Soviet-built series of nuclear-powered icebreakers as the largest and most powerful icebreaker in the world.
Ural is a Russian Project 22220 nuclear-powered icebreaker. Built by Baltic Shipyard in Saint Petersburg, the vessel was laid down in 2016, launched in 2019 and delivered in 2022.
Yakutiya is a Russian Project 22220 nuclear-powered icebreaker currently under construction at Baltic Shipyard in Saint Petersburg.
Chukotka is a Russian Project 22220 nuclear-powered icebreaker currently under construction at Baltic Shipyard in Saint Petersburg.
