The transformation in undersea warfare tactics and national defense
strategy effected by the introduction of nuclear-powered submarines is
now well known. Navy submarines employing the latest reactors and fuel
elements can stay at sea for more than 3 years without refueling.
_Polaris_ submarines on patrol remain submerged for 60 to 70 days. The
nuclear submarine _Triton_, tracing Magellan’s route of 400 years
earlier, traveled 36,000 miles under water, moving around the world in
83 days and 10 hours. Under-ice transits of the Arctic Ocean by nuclear
submarines are now commonplace. These feats all are possible because of
the nuclear reactors and propulsion systems developed by the AEC
Division of Naval Reactors, which also developed the propulsion plants
for the Navy’s nuclear surface vessels.[14]
[Illustration: _USS_ Seadragon _and_ Skate _sit nose to nose on top
of the world after under-ice voyages from the Atlantic and Pacific
Oceans to the North Pole._]
[Illustration: _A frogman from the Seadragon swims under the Arctic
ice in one of the first photographs made beneath the North Pole._]
DEEP SUBMERGENCE RESEARCH VEHICLE On April 18, 1965, President Johnson
announced that the Atomic Energy Commission and Department of the Navy
were undertaking development of a nuclear-powered deep submergence
research and engineering vehicle. This manned vehicle, designated the
NR-1, will have vastly greater endurance than any other yet developed or
planned, because of its nuclear power. Its development will provide the
basis for future nuclear-powered oceanographic research vehicles of even
greater versatility and depth capability.
The NR-1 will be able to move at maximum speed for periods of time
limited only by the amount of food and supplies it carries. With a crew
of five and two scientists, the vehicle will be able to make detailed
studies of the ocean bottom, temperature, currents, and other phenomena
for military, commercial, and scientific uses. The nuclear propulsion
plant will give it great independence from surface support ships and
essentially unlimited endurance for exploration.
The submarine will have viewing ports for visual observation of its
surroundings and of the ocean bottom. A remote grapple will permit
collection of marine samples and other objects. The NR-1 is expected to
be capable of exploring areas of the Continental Shelf, which appears to
contain the most accessible wealth in mineral and food resources in the
seas. Exploratory charting of this kind may help the United States in
establishing sovereignty over parts of the Continental Shelf; a ship
with its depth capability can explore an ocean-bottom area several times
larger than the United States.
The reactor plant for the vehicle is being designed by the General
Electric Company’s Knolls Atomic Power Laboratory, Schenectady, New
York. The remainder of the propulsion plant is being designed by the
Electric Boat Division, General Dynamics Corporation, Groton,
Connecticut.
Scientists are already beginning to implant small sea floor
laboratories. In the future, when large permanent undersea installations
for scientific investigation, mining, or fish farming become a reality,
nuclear reactors like the one designed for research submersibles or the
one already in use in Antarctica and other remote locations[15] will
serve as their power plants.