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A finned metal cylinder generator standing alone on bright pale-grey lunar soil, with a small crescent Earth in the sky

Nuclear History · Nuclear Propulsion: Submarines, Ships & Space

RTGs: Nuclear Batteries for Deep Space

From a 2.7-watt generator on Transit 4A in 1961 to the Voyagers, which still run in 2026 while losing about 4 watts a year, RTGs turned plutonium-238 decay heat into power for deep-space exploration.

A polished stainless-steel rocket engine nozzle with copper cooling tubes standing upright on pale desert ground at sunrise, with a small brown kiwi bird at its foot looking up at it and violet mountains in the distance

Nuclear History · Nuclear Propulsion: Submarines, Ships & Space

Project Rover and NERVA nuclear rockets

From the first Kiwi reactor test in 1959 to cancellation in January 1973, Rover and NERVA proved that a reactor heating hydrogen could drive a rocket, but no nuclear rocket ever left the ground.

A tall white ribbed cone-shaped radiator topped by a polished stainless-steel reactor vessel and pipework, standing in a bright white clean room with a window showing the curve of the Earth

Nuclear History · Nuclear Propulsion: Submarines, Ships & Space

SNAP-10A, the first reactor in space (1965)

Launched on 3 April 1965, SNAP-10A produced roughly 500 to 650 watts for 43 days before a satellite voltage regulator failed; it remains the only reactor the United States has flown.

Aerial view of a single lane of open turquoise water cut through bright white Arctic pack ice, stretching toward a sunny horizon

Nuclear History · Nuclear Propulsion: Submarines, Ships & Space

Russia's Nuclear Icebreaker Fleet

Arktika reached the North Pole on 17 August 1977; today four Project 22220 icebreakers with RITM-200 reactors are in service, three more are being built, and Russia operated eight nuclear icebreakers at the end of 2024.

Four submarine periscope heads of different designs rising from a calm turquoise sea under a soft morning sky

Nuclear History · Nuclear Propulsion: Submarines, Ships & Space

British, French, Chinese and Indian Nuclear Submarines

HMS Dreadnought (launched 1960, US S5W reactor), Le Redoutable (1967), China's Changzheng 1 (1970) and India's INS Arihant (2009) made four more nations nuclear-submarine operators after the US and USSR.

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