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 Nautilus (1930) French submarine Nautilus (1930) The French submarine "Nautilus" was a built for the French Navy in the mid-1930s. Laid down in August 1927, it was launched in March 1930 and commissioned in July 1931. "Nautilus" was disarmed at Bizerte, Tunisia and captured there on 8 December 1942 by Italian forces. On 31 January 1943, it was sunk at Bizerte during an Allied air raid. "Nautilus" was raised but not repaired and finally stricken on 12 August 1947. long, with a beam of and a draught of , "Saphir"-class submarines could dive up to . The submarine had a surfaced displacement