Nuclear Navy United States Atomic Energy Commission Historical Advisory Committee Chairman, Alfred D. Chandler, Jr. Harvard University John T. Conway Consolidated Edison Company Lauchlin M. Currie Carmel, California A. Hunter Dupree Brown University Ernest R. May Harvard University Robert P. Multhauf Smithsonian Institution Nuclear Navy 1946-1962 Richard G. Hewlett and Francis Duncan The University of Chicago Press Chicago and London The University of Chicago Press Chicago 60637 The University of Chicago Press Ltd., London Published 1974 Printed in the United States of America International Standard Book Number: 0-226-33219-5 Library of Congress Catalog Card Number: 74-5726 RICHARD G. HEWLETT is chief historian of the U. S. Atomic Energy Commission. He is coauthor, with Oscar E. Anderson, Jr., of The New World, 1939-1946 and, with Francis Duncan, of Atomic Shield, 1947-1952. FRANCIS DUNCAN is assistant historian of the U.S. Atomic Energy Commission. He is the coauthor of Atomic Shield. [1974] VA Contents Illustrations vii Foreword ix Preface xi 1 2 3 4 Control The The The of the Idea Question of Structure Sea and the Leadership of Responsi- 1 Challenge 52 bility 15 88 5 6 7 8 Emerging Prototypes Toward Nuclear Patterns of and a Nuclear Power Technical Submarines Fleet Beyond Management 153 194 the Navy 121 225 9 10 11 12 Propulsion Building Fleet The for the the Nuclear Operation Measure Fleet Fleet and of Accom- 258 297 Maintenance plishment 340 377 Appendix 1: Table of Organization Abbreviations 404 393 Notes 405 Appendix 2: Construction of the Sources 453 Nuclear Navy 399 Index 461 Appendix 3: Financial Data 402 V Illustrations Charts 8. Naval reactor installation at the National Reactor Testing 1. Evolution of Some Early Station, Idaho 171 Reactor Concepts 66 9. Full-scale wood and cardboard 2. The Navy Nuclear Propulsion mock-up of crew's quarters Project in August 1948 78 aboard the Nautilus 174 3. The Navy Nuclear Propulsion 10. West Milton, New York, site in Project in January 1949 91 1953 174 4. The Navy Nuclear Propulsion 11. President Truman about to Project in November 1950 130 place his initials on keel plate of 5. The Navy Nuclear Propulsion the Nautilus 175 Project in November 1952 183 12. Westinghouse and Electric Boat 6. The Navy Nuclear Propulsion officials at the Nautilus Project in July 1955 261 keel-laying ceremony 175 7. Nuclear Ships under 13. Submarine thermal reactor, Construction 1952-1962 320 Mark I, at Idaho test site, 1954 187 8. The Navy Nuclear Propulsion Project in July 1958 321 14. Launching of the Nautilus 218 15. Nautilus ready to depart on initial sea trials, January 17, Figures 1955 218 16. Cut-away drawing of the 1. Schematic Diagram of a Pres- Nautilus 219 surized-Water Reactor 133 17. Commander Eugene P. 2. Schematic Diagram of a Wilkinson, first captain of the Pressurized-Water Nuclear Nautilus 219 Propulsion Plant 133 18. Members of the Joint Committee on Atomic Energy aboard the Nautilus 221 Photographs 19. Full-scale model of the nation's 1. Fleet Admiral Ernest J. King and first civilian power reactor at Fleet Admiral Chester W. Shippingport, Pennsylvania Nimitz 4 245 2. Rickover with Commission and 20. President Eisenhower initiating General Electric officials 42 groundbreaking ceremonies for reactor project at Shippingport, 3. Lawrence R. Hafstad at Argonne Pennsylvania 245 National Laboratory 89 21. Aerial view of the Shippingport 4. Walter H. Zinn explains Atomic Power Station 256 research apparatus 96 22. Central figures in the Shipping- 5. Bettis Atomic Power port project standing in front of Laboratory 96 the reactor control panel 256 6. Alexander Squire examining 23. Rickover and some of his senior crystal bar zirconium 141 staff in summer of 1958 264 7. Rear Admiral David H. Clark succeeds Vice Admiral Earle W. 24. Launching of the Skipjack 268 Mills as Chief of the Bureau 25. From the Nautilus to the of Ships 157 Skipjack 269 vii VIII Illustrations 26. Preparations for keel laying of 31. The Skate surfacing at the Skate and launching of Seawolf North Pole 372 at Electric Boat yard 300 27. Electric Boat yard at Groton, 32. The Sculpin in high-speed Connecticut, 1958 305 surface run 372 28. Commander James B. Osborn 33. The Triton leaving New London and Rear Admiral William F. for a trip around the world 373 Raborn inspecting a missile hatch aboard the George 34. Polaris missile submarine Washington 316 Ethan Allen 373 29. Aircraft carrier Enterprise after launching on September 24, 35. Nuclear Surface Fleet, May 1960 316 1964 374 30. Rear Admiral Rickover and 36. Nuclear-powered aircraft Lieutenant Dean L. Axene carrier Enterprise executing a aboard the Nautilus 337 high-speed turn 375 Foreword The members of the Historical Advisory Committee of the United States Atomic Energy Commission have closely followed the writing of this volume and find the completed study an honest, scholarly, and balanced history of the Navy's nuclear propulsion program. We enjoyed the opportunity to review the draft and final chapters and to discuss them at length with the authors. At our meetings we had access to all the information they used, both classified and unclassified, and also had the opportunity to inspect the plants, laboratories, and nuclear-powered vessels whose development they were describing and analyzing. In the reviews of the draft and the final chapters we did not, of course, attempt to verify the accuracy of the details, based as they were on voluminous files of documents, many of which had been opened for historical research for the first time. Nor did we try to influence the authors' interpretations of the documentary record. The review did, however, permit us to say with certainty that this study in all respects meets exacting canons of historical scholarship. The story told here has significance for men of affairs as well as scholars. It says much about the innovation and development of a basic new technology under the guidance of the federal government. It describes the complex relationships among the scientists who handled the basic research, the civilian and military officials (usually technically trained engineers), who were responsible for carrying out the programs, and the contractors (usually private corporations), who built the plants, equipment, components, and ships. The study suggests both the problems raised in the process of putting a new technology to work and the techniques and procedures devised to solve these problems. In this way it provides a rare insight into the inner workings of the military and civilian governmental offices carrying out the task. Above all this history emphasizes the critical role played by individual personalities in the execution of a highly sophisticated, impersonal technological program within a large and sometimes impersonal bureaucracy. Alfred D. Chandler, Jr. Chairman, Historical Advisory Committee June 25, 1973 ix Preface This book had its origins in a series of discussions with Admiral Hyman G. Rickover beginning in the spring of 1962. Having read The New World, the first volume in the Atomic Energy Commission's historical series, Admiral Rickover urged the authors to undertake a history of the naval nuclear pro- pulsion program. Such a study, he believed, would reveal for the first time the truly significant aspects of the development of nuclear technology in the United States, a subject which, in his view, The New World had merely skirted. Although the authors of The New World found Admiral Rickover's suggestion an exciting possibility, work had already started on the second volume in the series and it was not feasible to take on another book. How- ever, discussions with the admiral continued over the next six years with growing interest on both sides. By 1968 the authors of the present book were completing Atomic Shield, the second volume in the Commission's historical series. Our research had reinforced our earlier impression that the Navy project deserved careful study. More than ever we were intrigued by the suggestion that Admiral Rickover and his group might have devised some especially effective ap- proach to reactor development which others had not found. If Rickover had such a "magic formula," would it not be sensible to find out what it was so that others could use it? The chance to write history that might have practical as well as intellectual value was certainly attractive, but we could foresee problems. The first was the obvious difficulty of defining Rickover's "formula." The challenge of try- ing to elucidate something Rickover and his own staff were unable to define was reason enough to hesitate. Even more serious in our view was the stress on administrative methods and engineering practices which such a study would seem to require. We were not specialists in public administration, management, or engineering. We could bring to the project only our talents and experience as historians. Rickover himself discounted this objection with the observation that the task required generalists rather than specialists. In his opinion the only person better qualified for the job would be a sociologist with exceptionally broad intellectual interests and experience. These reservations still troubled us, but we were now fascinated with the idea of writing the history of the naval nuclear propulsion program. Finally, in October 1968, we agreed to write the book if: (1) we had complete and unrestricted access to all the records of the project and to all persons who had participated in it; (2) we would be free to determine the scope, con- tent, and approach of the book; and (3) review of the manuscript would be xi xii Preface limited to matters of security classification and factual accuracy. Admiral Rickover accepted these terms and added only one of his own: that we would not use our access to the project for any purpose other than writing this book.