Nuclear submarine nuclear-powered submarine was first proposed in the United States Navy by the Naval Research Laboratory's Ross Gunn in 1939. Construction of the world's first nuclear powered submarine was made possible by the successful development of a nuclear propulsion plant by a group of scientists and engineers at the Naval Reactors Branch of the Bureau of Ships and the Atomic Energy Commission. In July 1951 the U.S. Congress authorized construction of the first nuclear-powered submarine, "Nautilus", under the leadership of Captain Hyman G. Rickover, USN (sharing names with Captain Nemo's fictional submarine in Jules Verne's "Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea",
French submarine Espadon (S637) front of her sail. On 13 August 1963 a fire in the torpedo room wounded and intoxicated four sailors, one of whom later died of his wounds. In May 1964, "Espadon" and "Marsouin" steamed under sea ice in the Norwegian Sea as far as 70° north. "Espadon" undertook significant modifications from 1966 to 1968, notably upgrading the boat's sonar, sail and rudders. "Espadon" has been a museum ship at the "ville-port" of Saint-Nazaire in the German-built submarine base since 1987. French submarine Espadon (S637) Espadon was a "Narval"-class submarine of the French Navy. Along with sister boat "Marsouin", the boat