“We said, 'Could you ship us the coordinates of the blade that you want?' We got it on a Friday. “On about a Thursday I received a call that the Navy had just run some new tests at Penn State on tiny blades, and they were interested in coming to Y‑12 on Monday to discuss the possibility of us making a larger blade for them to test,” Fee remembered. We have a research and development organization to back up our work, we work with a large variety of materials, we have strong program design and our inspection and testing capabilities are world-class.” “We have everything needed for developmental manufacturing and prototype work. “We have great abilities with classified, complex work because of the nuclear weapons program,” Gertsen continued. They'd test, then ask for a new shape or feature or instrumentation.” The quarter-scale model testing went on for several years. “We sent the scale models out to be tested on a quarter-scale sub.
#Sea wolf sub series#
“We created a series of designs, a whole bunch of models,” Gertsen said. Decades of weapons work had made Y‑12 a master in all these areas. Could we make some blades for them?”īuilding a quarter-scale propulsor prototype would demand highly complex fabrication, machining and materials, as well as development of the manufacturing process. “We had done work off and on for the Navy,” said former Y‑12 Plant Manager Gordon Fee, “but I received a call one day from an admiral in Washington who said that they were having great difficulty in producing models of some of the blades that they used for the propulsors for submarines. “This job was different, urgent and fascinating,” said John Gertsen, vice president of Uranium Processing Facility Programs, who was the production manager at the time. Navy was creating a nuclear sub that would be both fast and quiet, they turned to Y‑12 for an extremely difficult manufacturing challenge. The fast subs were so loud that an enemy could hear them long before they were within striking distance.
One part went by truck, and two parts were so large they traveled by barge, starting from Oak Ridge and the Tennessee River system.įor decades, attack submarines were either fast or quiet - but never both. The Seawolf propulsor prototype was transported to Connecticut, where the sub was being built.
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