What is a nuclear powered submarine

The Australian government has announced a historic trilateral defense partnership with the United States and the United Kingdom in the Indo-Pacific region. Under the trilateral agreement, Washington will provide Canberra with technology and capabilities to enable it to deploy nuclear-powered submarines.

The idea of ​​operating ships and submarines with nuclear propulsion dates back to the 1940s, with the first heralds of the “nuclear age.” Since then, only six countries in the world have nuclear-powered submarines, and those countries are China, France, India, Russia, Britain and the United States.

Australia had canceled a contract with France worth 90 billion Australian dollars (55.74 billion euros) to build conventional diesel-electric submarines, and Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison said today, Thursday, that his country had canceled a huge contract with France in 2016 to buy conventional submarines because it preferred to build with help. From the United States and Britain nuclear-powered submarines.

Nuclear reactor inside the submarine

It is worth noting that nuclear-powered submarines are not considered a nuclear weapon, and their external structure does not differ from that of any other submarine, and the main difference between conventional and "nuclear" submarines is in the way they power them.

Scientists realized at an early stage that the huge amounts of energy generated by "atom fission" could be harnessed to generate electricity, and indeed, there are many nuclear reactors inside power plants that power homes, industrial and service units all over the world, and the same is true for For nuclear powered submarines, they draw power from a small nuclear reactor located inside.

An important advantage of nuclear powered submarines is that they do not require refueling.

When one of these submarines enters service, it is supplied with sufficient quantities of uranium fuel to last more than 30 years.

The high efficiency of nuclear power also enables these submarines to operate at high speed for longer periods than conventional diesel-electric submarines, and unlike conventional fuel combustion, nuclear reactors do not require air, meaning that nuclear submarines can remain in the deep ocean for months at a time. Diving process, giving it a high ability to disappear, and it can carry out wider and farther spread operations.

The downside is the high cost, as each nuclear submarine typically costs several billion dollars to build, and requires a highly skilled workforce and expertise in nuclear sciences, and through its customized training programs offered by world-class universities and government agencies, Australia is well positioned to meet The demand is growing in this area, and Australia will benefit from US and British expertise through the new trilateral security agreement.

At the present stage, there are no details about the source of the fuel, however, it must be noted here that Australia has a large stock of uranium in its territory, but it does not have the ability to enrich it or manufacture reactor fuel, but it can obtain this fuel from abroad.

The 2015 Nuclear Fuel Cycle Royal Commission had found the commercial viability of long-term radioactive waste storage and disposal facilities in South Australia.

There is no doubt that such matters will be subject to deliberations at the level of local and federal government for years to come.

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