Nuclear marine propulsion
（重定向自Nuclear powered ship）
![When the nuclear-powered Arktika class NS 50 Let Pobedy was put into service in 2007, it became the world's largest icebreaker.](/Images/godic/202501/30/50_Let_Pobedy0456.jpg")
![USS Nautilus (SSN-571) in New York harbor, 25 August 1958. Nautilus had recently completed a polar voyage under the Arctic ice. (Photograph coutesy of United States Navy).](/Images/godic/202501/30/USS_Nautilus_SSN-571_-_08571080456.jpg")
![The nuclear-propelled French submarine Saphir returning to Toulon, its home port, after Mission Héraclès.](/Images/godic/202501/30/FS_Saphir_060456.jpg")
![Enterprise, the world's first nuclear-powered carrier (left) with what was then the newest: French carrier Charles de Gaulle, 16 May 2001](/Images/godic/202501/30/USS_Enterprise_FS_Charles_de_Gaulle0456.jpg")
Nuclear marine propulsion is propulsion of a ship or submarine with heat provided by a nuclear power plant. The power plant heats water, to produce steam and it is this steam that powers the steam turbines and turbo generators. The power is then transferred to a gearbox that reduces the ratio by around 50 to 1 and this powers the propulsor. Naval nuclear propulsion is propulsion that specifically refers to naval warships (see Nuclear navy). Very few experimental civil nuclear ships have been built.