Chinese nuclear submarineIn 1974, the People's Liberation Army Navy put into service ChangZheng 1, their first nuclear-powered submarine, designed and built in China. Russia had refused to share nuclear propulsion technology with China, so Mao Tse-tung resolved to develop their own nuclear submarine building program. Construction had started by 1968 at Huludao Shipyard, in Liaoning Province. The pressurized-water 90 megawatt reactor provided power for turbo-electric propulsion. The type 091 submarine was launched in 1970, its nuclear reactor was activated in Jul 1971 and it began sea trials the next month. NATO codenamed it aHan class submarine. As China's first-generation design, its performance was generally inferior to American or Russian vessels of the time. It was decommissioned in 2000.« |
