“The United States Navy has had floating nuclear plants for decades”
I was thinking the same thing. Hasn’t at least one nuclear sub sunk?
Vaguely related: I read the other day that nuclear subs have a disadvantage in that they can’t be made real quiet because the pumps for the reactor must be kept running and their noise can be picked up by sonar.
Also have read that we’re making non-nuclear subs again that are really quiet.
USS Thresher SSN 593 April 10, 1963 Performing deep dives after refit when a leak on sea water piping developed. (129 lost).
USS Scorpion SSN 589 As I was reading some of the articles after a DUCKDUCKGO search, and they discussed a torpedo malfunction. They also discussed the possibility that a Soviet sub got her. May 22, 1968 with 99 crew.
I was on a later sub and next to the EOOW (Eng Officer of the Watch) was a subsafe panel where aux sea water cooling systems could be isolated. This was in response to the Thresher loss.
The reactors had a natural circulation cooling design that would prevent meltdown upon loss of forced cooling. I have no idea how long the reactor vessel and fuel cladding would be designed to prevent fission products from being dumped into the environment. I bet they have a number.
There are youtube documentaries on these submarines.