James River reserve fleet, Newport News, Virginia. County/parish: York.
Added to the National Register of Historic Places November 14, 1982. NRIS 82001518.
1 contributing structure.
NS Savannah was the first nuclear-powered merchant ship. She was built in the late 1950s at a cost of $46.9 million (including a $28.3 million nuclear reactor and fuel core) and launched on July 21, 1959. She was funded by United States government agencies. Savannah was a demonstration project for the potential use of nuclear energy. The ship was named after SS Savannah, the first steamship to cross the Atlantic ocean. She was in service between 1962 and 1972 as one of only four nuclear-powered cargo ships ever built. (The Soviet ice-breaker Lenin, launched on December 5, 1957, was the first nuclear-powered civilian ship.)
Savannah was deactivated in 1971 and after several moves was moored at Pier 13 of the Canton Marine Terminal in Baltimore, Maryland in 2008.
(read more...)