Everything about The S5g Reactor totally explained
The
S5G reactor was a prototype
naval reactor designed for the
United States Navy to provide
electricity generation and
propulsion on
warships. The S5G designation stands for:
The S5G was a
pressurized water reactor plant with two coolant loops and two
steam generators. It had to be designed with the
reactor vessel situated low in the boat and the
steam generators high in order for
natural circulation of the coolant to be developed and maintained.
This
nuclear reactor was installed both as a land-based prototype at the
Nuclear Power Training Unit,
Idaho National Engineering Laboratory near
Idaho Falls, Idaho, and on board the
USS Narwhal (SSN-671) (both have been decommissioned). It was intended to test the potential contribution of
natural circulation technology to
submarine quieting.
Reactor primary coolant pumps are one of the primary sources of noise from submarines, and the elimination of coolant pumps and associated equipment would also reduce mechanical complexity and the space required by propulsion equipment. Its design was the direct ancestor of the
S8G reactor used on the
Ohio class ballistic missile submarines, another very quiet
submarine.
The S5G had coolant pumps, but they were only needed for very high speeds. And since the reactor core was designed with very smooth paths for the coolant, the coolant pumps were smaller and quieter than the ones used by the competing
S5W core. They were also fewer in number. In most cases, the submarine could be operated without using coolant pumps at all. The reduction in electrical requirements enabled this design to use only a single electrical turbine generator plant.
To further reduce engine plant noise, the normal propulsion setup of two
steam turbines driving the
screw through a reduction
gear unit was changed instead to one large propulsion turbine with no reduction gears. This eliminated the noise from the main reduction gears, but the cost was to have a huge main propulsion turbine. The turbine was cylindrical, about 12 feet in diameter, and about 30 feet long. This massive size was necessary to allow it to turn slowly enough to directly drive the screw and be fairly efficient in doing so. The same propulsion setup was used on both the USS
Narwhal and the land-based prototype.
The concept of a
natural circulation plant was relatively new when the Navy requested this design. The prototype plant in Idaho was therefore given quite a rigorous performance shakedown to determine if such a design would work for the US Navy. It was largely a success, although the design never became the basis for any more fast-attack submarines besides the
Narwhal. The prototype testing included the simulation of essentially the entire engine room of an attack
submarine. Floating the plant in a large pool of water allowed the prototype to be rotated along its long axis to simulate a hard turn. This was necessary to determine whether
natural circulation would continue even during hard maneuvers, since natural circulation is dependent on gravity.
Further Information
Get more info on 'S5g Reactor'.
|
External Link Exchanges
Do you know how hard it is to get a link from a large encyclopaedia? Well we're different and will prove it. To get a link from us just add the following HTML to your site on a relevant page:
<a href="http://s5g_reactor.totallyexplained.com">S5G reactor Totally Explained</a>
Then simply click through this link from your web page. Our crawlers will verify your link, extract the title of your web page and instantly add a link back to it. If you like you can remove the words Totally Explained and embed the link in article text.
As long as your link remains in place, we'll keep our link to you right here. Please play fair - our crawlers are watching. Your site must be closely related to this one's topic. Any kind of spamming, dubious practises or removing the link will result in your link from us being dropped and, potentially, your whole site being banned. |
