S3W reactor
The S3W reactor is a naval reactor used by the United States Navy to provide electricity generation and propulsion on warships. The S3W designation stands for:
- S = Submarine platform
- 3 = Third generation core designed by the contractor
- W = Westinghouse was the contracted designer
This nuclear reactor was a variant of the Submarine Fleet Reactor (SFR), an advance on the pressurized water reactor (PWR) plant design employed on the USS Nautilus (SSN-571). The S3W's major innovation was the adoption of vertical U-tube steam generators. This concept was further developed in the S5W reactor, and is in common use today on commercial PWR power plants.
The USS Halibut (SSGN-587) and two boats of the Skate class were built with S3W reactors: USS Skate (SSN-578) [1] and USS Sargo (SSN-583) [2]. During later overhauls, the S3W reactors in both Skate and Sargo were replaced with S5W reactors [3].
References
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