Maintenance Practices for Emergency Diesel Generator Engines Onboard United States Navy Los Angeles Class Nuclear Submarines

Abstract

The United States Navy has recognized the rising age of its nuclear reactors. With this increasing age comes increasing importance of backup generators. In addition to the need for decay heat removal common to all (naval and commercial) nuclear reactors, naval vessels with nuclear reactors also require a backup means of propulsion. All underway Navy nuclear reactors are operated with diesel generators as a backup power system, able to provide emergency electric power for reactor decay heat removal as well as enough electric power to supply an emergency propulsion mechanism. While all commercial nuclear reactors are required to incorporate muhiple backup generators, naval submarine nuclear plants feature a single backup generator. The increasing age of naval nuclear reactors, coupled with the dual reqmrements of a submarine's solitary backup generator, makes the study of submarine backup generators vital.

Open PDF

Document Details

Document Type
Technical Report
Publication Date
Jun 01, 2006
Accession Number
ADA471788

Entities

People

  • Matthew A. Hawks

Organizations

  • Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Tags

Communities of Interest

  • Biomedical
  • Ground and Sea Platforms

DTIC Thesaurus Topics

  • Los Angeles Class
  • Mechanical Engineering
  • Naval Warfare
  • Navy
  • Nuclear Powered Submarines
  • Nuclear Propulsion
  • Submarine Warfare
  • Submarines
  • United States

Fields of Study

  • Physics

Readers

  • Internal Combustion Engine (ICE) Technology.
  • Maritime and Naval Warfare Studies
  • Strategic Security Studies