page_title: Nuclear marine propulsion
section_title: Aircraft carriers
hierarchical_section_title: Nuclear marine propulsion / Military nuclear ships / Aircraft carriers
caption_attribution_description: English: The aircraft carrier USS Nimitz (CVN 68) and embarked Carrier Air Wing (CVW) 11 transits into San Diego prior to mooring at Naval Air Station North Island. Nimitz is preparing for a 2009 regularly scheduled Western Pacific Deployment.
context_page_description: Nuclear marine propulsion is propulsion of a ship or submarine with heat provided by a nuclear power plant. The power plant heats water to produce steam for a turbine used to turn the ship's propeller through a gearbox or through an electric generator and motor. Naval nuclear propulsion is used specifically within naval warships such as supercarriers. A small number of experimental civil nuclear ships have been built.
  Compared to oil or coal fuelled ships, nuclear propulsion offers the advantages of very long intervals of operation before refueling. All the fuel is contained within the nuclear reactor, so no cargo or supplies space is taken up by fuel, nor is space taken up by exhaust stacks or combustion air intakes. However, the low fuel cost is offset by high operating costs and investment in infrastructure, so nearly all nuclear-powered vessels are military.
context_section_description: The United States and France have built nuclear aircraft carriers.
  The sole French nuclear aircraft carrier example is Charles de Gaulle, commissioned in 2001 (a second one is planned).
  The United States Navy have a much broader experience. USS Enterprise, in service 1962–2012, powered by eight reactor units, is still the only aircraft carrier to house more than two nuclear reactors, with each A2W reactor taking the place of one of the conventional boilers in earlier constructions. Recent US vessels include the Nimitz and successor Gerald R. Ford classes.
caption: The aircraft carrier USS Nimitz of the United States Navy
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