Sept. 30, 2014

USS Nautilus and the U.S. Navy Get Underway on Nuclear Power

For the cost of a laptop today, the Navy's nuclear propulsion program began 77 years ago. It could only have been a Navy physicist who upon observing the energy created by the splitting of uranium atoms, would also wonder if that could be used for propulsion at sea. It was in 1939 when Naval Research Laboratory (NRL) scientists met to determine if

Sept. 9, 2014

Nuclear Navy and Energy Independence Pick Up Steam in 1961

Long Beach, the world's first nuclear-powered guided missile cruiser, was commissioned Sept. 9, 1961, the same year as the world's first nuclear-powered aircraft carrier, USS Enterprise (CVAN 65). "With their nuclear-powered submarine counterparts already operating in the fleet and the nuclear-powered guided missile destroyer USS Bainbridge (DLGN