4 ms·

> It takes 3 years to refuel them What do you mean by this?

• detaro 10y ago
  Refueling, which only happens every 25 years, is quite complex since they have to get still highly radioactive spent fuel out of the sealed reactor, so they combine it with a general overhaul and upgrade, which means the ship is taken out of service for years. (search term "refueling and overhaul")
  • markdown 10y ago
    Thanks
• Tuna-Fish 10y ago
  The nuclear reactors have an endurance of ~25 years. (Not limited by amount of uranium, but by build-up of undesirable elements). After that, they need to be refueled, and that is done as a part of a complex mid-life refit that takes over 3 years. The construction cadence of the Nimitz class was set with the idea that starting from '98, all the carriers would be refueled and refitted in turn, so that one is always at the yard. Right now, that carrier is USS Abraham Lincoln (CVN-72), which entered the dock in March 2013, and still remains there.
  • markdown 10y ago
    That's informative. Thank you.