12. Rickover experimented with another type of reactor design before rejecting its use
While Nautilus was still under construction, the keel was laid for the second nuclear submarine, Seawolf. Though the hull design was basically the same as Nautilus, the reactor selected for use in the submarine was an altogether different design. Built by General Electric, the reactor plant, designated the Submarine Intermediate Reactor (SIR), was technologically more complex than the pressurized water plant built by Westinghouse. It used liquid sodium as its coolant. In Seawolf the reactor plant proved problematic. Steam leaks and other failures haunted the design. By the time Seawolf was ready to become fully operational Rickover had decided the reactor was unsuitable for use in one of his submarines. Rickover cited the reactor’s cost as one factor in his decision as well as saying of the design they were “…susceptible to prolonged shutdown as a result of even minor malfunctions, and difficult and time-consuming to repair”.
The experiment with the liquid sodium reactor in Seawolf demonstrated Rickover’s preference for proven reliability over experimental technology. In 1958 Rickover ordered the faulty reactor replaced with pressurized water reactor of a design similar to Nautilus’. The replacement took all of 1959 and most of 1960. One officer who interviewed for assignment to Seawolf was a lieutenant qualified in submarines, Jimmy Carter. Assignment to the engineering department was to have been his, but Carter resigned his commission in 1953, after the death of his father. Though Carter had attended nuclear power school and was slated to work under Rickover, it was not to be. Many years later, Rickover served under Carter when the latter became President of the United States.