breaking the Big E

https://www.navytimes.com/news/your-...itary%20-%20Ea

looks like the US Navy is decommissioning the aircraft carrier Enterprise. It is the first nuclear powered aircraft to be built and also the 1st nuclear ship to be decommission of its size.

U.S. Navy is running into problems decommissioning this ship thanx to the interference by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission.

Enterprise has 8 nuclear reactors and took 4 years to defuel them. didn't know it had that many. Modern carriers has 2 reactors.

GAO says it'll cost between 750 million to 1 billion for commercial to break the big E.

https://www.navytimes.com/news/your-...itary%20-%20Ea

looks like the US Navy is decommissioning the aircraft carrier Enterprise. It is the first nuclear powered aircraft to be built and also the 1st nuclear ship to be decommission of its size.

U.S. Navy is running into problems decommissioning this ship thanx to the interference by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission.

Enterprise has 8 nuclear reactors and took 4 years to defuel them. didn't know it had that many. Modern carriers has 2 reactors.

GAO says it'll cost between 750 million to 1 billion for commercial to break the big E. Originally Posted by dilbert firestorm

it had that many because it had never been done before. the engineers calculated 4 reactors of the day would be adequate on paper but they didn't know for certain. so they invoked an old engineering/structural adage .. "double it". well the Navy balked at that, but the ship builder and engineers pointed out that if they went with just 4 reactors and the ship was under powered, you couldn't just cut it open and add 4 more later.

in reality the Enterprise was over powered. so with the Nimitz class and newer reactor designs, 2 reactors were used. here is one of the motto's used on the Enterprise .. "Eight Reactors, None Faster". and they meant it.
here is it's speed rating .. Speed: 33.6 kn (38.7 mph; 62.2 km/h).

this is actually a gross understatement. Starting with the Enterprise and all later Nimitz class carriers, the true top speed is approaching 60 mph. Yes .. 60 mph or 52 knots. the only limit is not the power output but the bearing temperatures on the propeller shafts. i was briefly on the Enterprise in 1982 after it's refit in Bremerton as part of the support staff. we went out on sea trails and did a full power run up to the temp limits on the shafts. 50 knots. and that is sustainable.

recall that the Navy built two non-carrier nuclear powered surface ships as part of a nuclear powered task force .. Task Force 1. the nuclear powered USS Long Beach and USS Bainbridge, both guided missile cruisers. this was supposed to be the beginning of a nuclear powered surface fleet but costs didn't justify the smaller ships. here they are in formation ..







both the Long Beach and Bainbridge and many nuclear subs have been decommissioned. the cost estimate for the Enterprise is mostly the number of reactors and the scale. Enterprise is the first nuclear carrier to be decomm'd. the Nimitz class has 2 reactors and won't be as expensive.

good historical info.