Illustration by Federation of American Scientists

Foster’s Daily Democrat has a good story today about the upcoming decommissioning of NR-1, a U.S. Navy submarine that does research and recovery missions (NR stands for Naval Research). NR-1 was the Navy’s only  research sub, and has done tasks like gathering bits of Space Shuttle Challenger after it was lost, exploring the USS Monitor, and doing varous seabed exploration and mapping. Among its cool attributes are extendible wheels to running on the sea floor, and a recovery claw to grab stuff.

The ship will be “defueled” - a term for disposing of spent nuclear waste, a process that the Navy knows perhaps better than anybody because it has several hundred nuclear-powered ships, including all its subs. (There is talk about using versions of the Navy’s small, portable nuclear power plants on the land to power entire towns - sort of a cross between Seabrook and a mobile home.)

Tags: nuclear power, submarine