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A nuclear submarine works on nuclear technology rather than conventional air-breathing diesel engines. Nuclear submarines operate on nuclear reactor technology, the same technology that is used to produce electricity. In conventional submarines, diesel engines were used to charge batteries for underwater running.

Nuclear submarines have numerous advantages over conventional diesel submarines such as they don’t need to surface frequently as they are independent of air. Unlike conventional submarines, power generated by nuclear reactor is huge and hence, they can run at high speeds for prolonged periods and neither need refueling intervals as they can operate under water throughout their lifetime (generally 25 years). These few points of nuclear powered submarines scored over conventional diesel submarines, make them stealth weapons.

History

The idea of making a nuclear submarine first emerged around 1950 when the Cold War between the US and Soviet Union (USSR) was at zenith. Both the countries were trying technologies to build nuclear powered submarines to overcome the drawbacks of conventional ones. Both the countries knew what a lethal weapon nuclear submarines would be. The US was successful in making a headway start with launching USS Nautilus, the first nuclear powered submarine in the world, on January 21, 1952. The submarines could encircle the world for 4 months without resurfacing.

It was American Admiral Rickover who first came up with the idea of making a nuclear submarine. In July 1951, the US Congress gave a green signal to Captain Rickover to proceed with the development of nuclear submarine, at the Naval Reactors Branch of Atomic Energy Commission. The task of building the reactor was given to the Westinghouse Corporation, which is now a leader in nuclear technology.

The Soviet Union started its nuclear submarine program in the 1950s too. Its research work was done at Institute of Physics and Power Engineering at Obninsk. They began testing their models in 1956 and finally after many obstacles like radiation leaks and steam generation problems, their first nuclear powered submarine entered service in Soviet Navy on 1958.

A Brief Timeline of Nuclear Submarines

1954: 1st nuclear powered submarine, USS Nautilus was launched.
1961: Soviets claim to have fastest and largest fleet of nuclear submarines.
1963: In one of the worsts nuclear disasters, USS Thresher is lost with 129 men on board.
1986: Soviet Yankee-class submarine sinks in Atlantic Ocean with nuclear missiles on board.
1989: A Mike-class Soviet nuclear submarines sinks 500 kilometers from Norway.
2000: Russian nuclear submarine Kursk sinks.
2009: China becomes the fifth country in the world to launch rockets from a nuclear submarine.

An interesting fact is that although Russia is the country to suffer most number of nuclear submarine accidents, it produced approximately 4 to 5 nuclear submarines from each of its 4 submarine yards during the Cold War. Indeed amazing! They made about 245 nuclear submarines between the 1950s and 1997. If one adds all the nuclear submarines of world, the resulting figure still won’t be able to break the Soviet Unions figure of 425 nuclear submarines.

Since, the cost of building the nuclear submarines is very high, only a few countries have been able to make and maintain these. Countries like US, Russia, France, UK and China have operational nuclear propulsion submarines at present. However, countries like India, Brazil and Argentina have been working on similar projects