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allthesamepieman t1_j29m4ji wrote

Reply to comment by dittybopper_05H in Just back from witnessing a test firing of a rocket motor that my neighbor built by goatharper

That's because the nuclear part only generates the heat, it doesn't provide the motive force. A steam turbine is the motor but we don't call a steam turbine an engine either even though we could. Nuclear power is used to generate electricity which in turn powers electric motors. That's why we don't call them nuclear motors or engines. We do have some nuclear detonation propulsion engines though but they have a whole host of other problems.

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dittybopper_05H t1_j2ags41 wrote

>Nuclear power is used to generate electricity which in turn powers electric motors.

Not always. Often, a PWR (pressurized water reactor) is used with a closed loop of superheated water that turns water into steam in a heat exchanger in order to directly drive propulsive turbines which are geared directly to the screws.

For example, the USS Tullibee was the first US submarine to use turbo-electric drive like you're thinking of, all of the other nuclear submarines before it used direct drive.

And almost all of the submarines afterwards. The Los Angeles class, for example, has the turbines connected physically to the screw, as does the current Virginia class subs (connected physically to the pumpjet).

In fact, I don't think the US has any nuclear powered ships that use turbo-electric propulsion. I know the Royal Navy does, though.

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allthesamepieman t1_j2avlhx wrote

Very cool, I didn't know that. So do we call those steam engines or nuclear motors?

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