Navy Nuclear-Powered Surface Ships: Background, Issues, and Options for Congress

All of the Navys aircraft carriers, but none of its other surface ships, are nuclear-powered. Some Members of Congress, particularly on the House Armed Services Committee, have expressed interest in expanding the use of nuclear power to a wider array of Navy surface ships, starting with the CGX, a planned new cruiser that the Navy had wanted to start procuring around FY2017. Section 1012 of the FY2008 Defense Authorization Act H.R. 4986P.L. 110-181 of January 28, 2008 makes it U.S. policy to construct the major combatant ships of the Navy, including ships like the CGX, with integrated nuclear power systems, unless the Secretary of Defense submits a notification to Congress that the inclusion of an integrated nuclear power system in a given class of ship is not in the national interest. The Navy studied nuclear power as a design option for the CGX, but did not announce whether it would prefer to build the CGX as a nuclear-powered ship. The Navys FY2011 budget proposes canceling the CGX program and instead building an improved version of the conventionally powered Arleigh Burke DDG-51 class Aegis destroyer. The cancellation of the CGX program would appear to leave no near-term shipbuilding program opportunities for expanding the application of nuclear power to Navy surface ships other than aircraft carriers.