Or on anyone of the nine other carriers in this class!
Nimitz class carriers are powered by two A4W nuclear reactors, the designation standing for:
A = Aircraft carrier platform
4 = Contractor's fourth core design generation
W = Westinghouse, the contracted designer
A4W reactors are pressurized water reactors (PWRs), jointly designed by Bettis Atomic Power Laboratory and Knolls Atomic Power Laboratory and built by Westinghouse Electric Company. Their reactor cores are expected to operate for about 25 years before refueling is required. The Nimitz class supercarriers (all ten of them, although there are three subclasses) are thus far - and will remain so - the only ships to use them, boasting two A4Ws rated at 550 MWth each. These generate enough steam to produce 140,000 shaft horsepower (104 MW) for each pair of the ship's four shafts – two per propulsion plant – plus approximately 100 MW of electricity for all of the carriers' other electrical needs. While the two A4W reactors were a tremendous improvement over the USS Enterprise's 8 (eight) Westinghouse A2W powerplants, the successor of the Nimitz class, the Gerald Ford class, boasts even more impressive reactors in the form of two A1Bs (for Bechtel), with an approximately 25% higher output yet.
Very interesting info on marine nuclear powerplants here.
MFBB.
No comments:
Post a Comment