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",
HMS Nautilus (1914) HMS Nautilus (1914) HMS "Nautilus" was a Royal Navy submarine. She was the largest submarine built for the Royal Navy at the time. She was also the first to be given a name. "Nautilus" was designed in response to recommendations for an overseas submarine displacing 1,000 tons and capable of . The resulting design changed from the saddle tanks common at the time to a double hull. The order was given to Vickers in 1912 and her keel was laid down in March 1913. Although launched in 1914 it took until 1917 to complete the vessel. "Nautilus" spent most of