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USS ''Nautilus'' (SSN-571) was the world's first operational nuclear-powered submarine. The vessel was the first submarine to complete a submerged transit of the North Pole on 3 August 1958. Sharing names with Captain Nemo's fictional submarine in Jules Verne's ''Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea'', and named after another that served with distinction in World War II, ''Nautilus'' was authorized in 1951 and launched in 1954. Because her nuclear propulsion allowed her to remain submerged far longer than diesel-electric submarines, she broke many records in her first years of operation, and traveled to locations previously beyond the limits of submarines. In operation, she revealed a number of limitations in her design and construction. This information was used to improve subsequent submarines. ''Nautilus'' was decommissioned in 1980 and designated a National Historic Landmark in 1982. The submarine has been preserved as a submarine museum in Groton, Connecticut, where the vessel receives some 250,000 visitors a year. ==Planning and construction== In July 1951 the United States Congress authorized the construction of a nuclear-powered submarine for the U.S. Navy, which was planned and personally supervised by Admiral Hyman G. Rickover, known as the "Father of the Nuclear Navy."〔 (【引用サイトリンク】publisher=Naval History & Heritage Command )〕 On 12 December 1951 the US Department of the Navy announced that the submarine would be called ''Nautilus'', the fourth U.S. Navy vessel officially so named. The boat carried the hull number SSN-571. ''Nautilus''s keel was laid at General Dynamics' Electric Boat Division in Groton, Connecticut by Harry S. Truman on 14 June 1952. She was christened on 21 January 1954 and launched into the Thames River, sponsored by Mamie Eisenhower. ''Nautilus'' was commissioned on 30 September 1954, under the command of Commander Eugene P. Wilkinson, USN.〔 ''Nautilus'' was powered by the Submarine Thermal Reactor (STR), later redesignated the S2W reactor, a pressurized water reactor produced for the US Navy by Westinghouse Electric Corporation. Bettis Atomic Power Laboratory, operated by Westinghouse, developed the basic reactor plant design used in ''Nautilus'' after being given the assignment on 31 December 1947 to design a nuclear power plant for a submarine. Nuclear power had the crucial advantage in submarine propulsion because it is a zero-emission process that consumes no air. This design is the basis for nearly all of the US nuclear-powered submarine and surface combat ships, and was adapted by other countries for naval nuclear propulsion. The first actual prototype (for ''Nautilus'') was constructed and tested by the Argonne National Laboratory in 1953 at the S1W facility, part of the National Reactor Testing Station in Idaho.〔(Argonne National Laboratory News Release, 21 January 1996, retrieved 31 December 2014 )〕〔(Reactors designed by Argonne National Laboratory, retrieved 31 December 2014 )〕 ''Nautilus ship's patch was designed by The Walt Disney Company, and her wardroom currently displays a set of tableware made of zirconium, as the reactor core was partly made of zirconium. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「USS Nautilus (SSN-571)」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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