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C1W Cruiser Reactor Plant

The C1W was a United States Navy nuclear pressurized water reactor, used exclusively on the Long Beach guided missile cruiser, the world's first nuclear-powered cruiser. The C1W was the only nuclear reactor ever explicitly earmarked for a cruiser (two of them, powering two geared turbines) with all subsequent nuclear cruisers powered by "D"-class (or The C1W designation stands for: C = Cruiser platform; 1 = First generation core designed by the contractor; W = Westinghouse was the contracted designer.

The C1W reactors were reportedly very similar to the A2Ws of the Enterprise, presumably somewhat uprated. A more thorough effort in the research and engineering phases of new developments had to be carried out before placing them in a ship. Building time had to be cut, changes to a ship had to be held to a minimum, and only those accepted that promised significant improvement in performance.

On April 1, 1956, construction of the Enterprise prototype reactor began at the NRF. The ship itself was being erected in Newport News 1 Virginia. Two years later the Idaho reactor achieved criticality. Called the AlW (A for Aircraft Carrier, 1 for first model, and W for Westinghouse) , the plant included two pressurized water reactors and associated steam equipment. Both reactors achieved full power in 1959. The NRF and the Bettis Laboratory used the AlW to test and develop different reactor materials . The information gained from AlW was used to design the ClW plant for the cruiser USS Long Beach, under construction in Quincy, Massachusetts.

Beginning with the 17,000-ton USS LONG BEACH (CGN 9) and the 9,600-ton USS BAINBRIDGE (CGN 25), the Navy built several types of nuclear-powered cruisers. Nuclear power and multimission capability (antiair, antisurface, and antisubmarine) made these cruisers some of the most versatile ships afloat and an effective component of the Navy's Cold War force. Having served proudly, nuclear-powered cruisers have been decommissioned as part of the post–Cold War downsizing of the Fleet.

This was the first nuclear reactor designed for use on a cruiser. It originally was designed as a four reactor powerplant capable of producing the same propulsion power as a Des Moines-class heavy cruiser: 120,000 shp. There was no C1W prototype. The only use of C1W was on the USS Long Beach (CGN-9). The propulsion system consisted of 2 x C1W reactors each rated @ 200 MWt (est); 2 x steam turbines driving 2 x shafts; total propulsion power 80,000 hp (60 MW). Long Beach’s reactors were refueled twice. Cores 1 & 2 operated for an average of 9.5 years; Core 3 operated for almost 14 years.