Options for Initial Fuelling. Volume 3

• Main Authors: Raman, Raj, Murphy, Robert, Smallman, Laurence, Schank, John F., Birkler, John, Chiesa, James
• Other Authors: RAND CORP SANTA MONICA CA
• Format: Text
• Language: English
• Published: 2005
• Subjects: Submarine Engineering; Logistics; Military Facilities and Supplies; *REFUELING; *NUCLEAR POWERED SUBMARINES; DEFENSE INDUSTRY; UNITED KINGDOM; SHIPBUILDING; Furness; DML
• Online Access: http://www.dtic.mil/docs/citations/ADA440098; http://oai.dtic.mil/oai/oai?&verb=getRecord&metadataPrefix=html&identifier=ADA440098

In the United Kingdom, newly built submarines are fuelled where they are constructed: at the Barrow-in-Furness shipyard owned by BAE Systems. Devonport Management Limited (DML) currently refuels existing submarines once their initial fuel load is depleted (and defuels them at retirement). Sustaining separate fuelling and refuelling sites has meant sustaining two sets of nuclear fuel-handling licenses. This has proven increasingly costly in a regulatory regime that expects to see continuous improvement. Such cost increases have led the Ministry of Defence (MOD) to consider the possibility of consolidating its nuclear fuel-handling capabilities at the existing re-fuelling site at DML. If new submarines were fuelled at the DML dockyard, the Barrow yard could relinquish its nuclear fuel-handling license. Such a move could reduce expenditures on the current Astute-class attack submarine acquisition programme and future nuclear submarine projects. The original document contains color images.