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...but there actually was a liquid sodium reactor sub built in the 50s, from what I've heard.
by perl4ever 7y ago
...but there actually was a liquid sodium reactor sub built in the 50s, from what I've heard.
- brandmeyer 7y agoOnly one. She was a contemporary of the Nautilus. It was their experience with that vessel that killed liquid metal coolant for the navy. It might help to understand something special about the nuclear navy in those days - prototypes in the lab don't count. Prototypes on land don't count either. The only prototypes that counted were ones that actually went to sea. All the way through the Skipjack generation, they were regularly doing crazy-eyed one-off experiments. Nautilus and Seawolf were both prototypes.
- willvarfar 7y agoAgree. One Soviet 'November' class (K27) and all 7 'Alfa' class used liquid metal. It wasn't developed further or used after.
- DennisP 7y agoBut Russia does have two sodium cooled reactors on their power grid right now.