16,000 amp wire?

[jeremysterling]

It's not an impossible claim .... When nuclear subs are in port, they actually feed power into the local grid. Each sub can easily provide power to 20,000 homes.

Must be some awesome wire nuts!

Actually, the shore power breaker has reverse power trip installed. Because Admiral Rickover, the founder of the nuclear Navy, did not want NRC (Nuclear Regulatory Commission) oversight, Navy Nuclear Power Plants are not allowed to put power on the grid.

At S8G in upstate New York, we boiled megawatts of water for the cooling towers only.

When tied up at the Weapons Station in Summerville SC, we had the only power after Hurricane Hugo wiped out the shore power. Alas, we could not share our power with the citizenry.

On the flip side, each sub can easily destroy 20,000 homes.:grin:

 

[Besoeker]

Not only is it a greater cross sectional area, bus bars can have several advantages in current carrying capacity over "cables". Like:

1. A wire has a lower temperature limit than a bus bar, due to the temp. rating of the insulating covering. You can let bare copper get a lot hotter than a thermoplastic wire covering.
2. Bus bars don't have to be completly covered by an insulator, so the heat can dissipate faster.
3. Bus bars are flat, so again, they give off heat a lot better.

Yes, I understand that and, in sizing bus bars, I take account of the profile. A wide thin bar has a greater surface area to cross-sectional area than say, a square or round bar (of the same area).

There is just no way to get 16000 amps in a cable without doing something really bizzare, like maybe using superconductors.

Well, you can. We have made controllers for arc furnaces. They are a bit like gigantic welders. The electrodes have to move up and down to control the arc impedance as the material melts and changes shape. Connections are by cable. For 40 kA.

 

[mkgrady]

I installed receptacles used for the ship to shore power of some nuc subs. The receptacles were made by Duraline. It was a proprietary spec., meaning the navy would accept no other brand. The boat would connect as many cables as they needed at any given time. I can't remember the wire size but it was big. Somewhere between 500 and 1,000 amps each. They did not use multiconductor cable. It was typical for them to connect four cables for each phase. The ship to shore cables were color coded as were the receptacles. The system voltage was 480.

 

[navyman]

I pulled many miles of shore power cable to connect our guided missile cruiser to the shore. It was a 3 cond. cable about 4 or 5 inches in diameter...conductor size was aprox. 5oo mcm. We would pull as many as 20 cables up from the shore...which weighs 14 lbs per foot...It was a ball buster!!! Our shore power bkr on board was rated at 480v 1200a.

 

[K8MHZ]

4 inch conductor?

Was it hollow?

Here is why I ask.

 

[Rockyd]

Thanks Rocky, for the memories. I remember being EM3, standing "turtle-back watch" through the night, sitting on those shore power cables, reporting if they were dipping to low near the water.

We would grease the terminal ends before connecting them to our sub.

One night I was SEO (Shutdown Electrical Operator) in maneuvering. We were Tango 3 on the Simon Lake sub-tender. Our shore power was good, so I was drinking bug juice and trying to stay awake.

Another boat was outboard of us (Tango 5). Tango 5 kept calling the Simon Lake complaining every 15 minutes that the shore power was not good. After about two hours of this, I hear on the phones, " Simon Lake, Tango 5...Our shore power is still...TANGO FIVE LOSS OF SHORE POWER!!!"

I think the electrician on the Simon Lake got fed up with the guy's complaints and opened up the shore power breaker figuring Tango 5 would be happier running his diesel generator!

That was pretty funny, because shore power is way preferable to the noise and smell of the diesel.:grin:

Ah, my brother from another mother!

Biggest Challenge for us in "engineering". was to have enough cofferdams for the boats. I remember one time when we were looking for a cofferdam, and the Sub officer wasn't going to wait. Our engineering ooficer said "give em power"! Well don't you know it, a storm came up. That night provided the biggest fireball I've ever seen! Vaporized two of the "plugs" ( 90 pound monsters, but that is another story) going into the sub!

 

[Mgraw]

4 inch conductor?

Was it hollow?

Here is why I ask.

Look at the LITZ wire mentioned in the link. WOW They make a 3.9 inch, 31200 #33 wires, at 8.9 lbs per foot.

 

[mbeatty]

Talking to a tech who used to be on subs in the navy. He told me they had "super shore power" cables they would connect to the submarine in the dock. One wire for each of the three phases that would carry 16,000 amps. He said each wire was estimated to be about a 4" diameter (my estimate based on the shape he made with his hands).

Obviously this goes well beyond the 2000 kcmil limit of the code.

Just wondering if there were any navy guys out there that could verify at least the idea of this... 16,000 amps? Custom made 4" dia wires?

I'm leaning toward this being complete bunk but thought I would ask around...

I am a retired Navy Engineering Officer (Electrical). One of the ships I served on was a nuclear submarine tender. We provided supplies, engineering assistance and power to all of the U.S. subs in Holy Loch, Scotland. We fed them 460V via shore power cables that were about 4" in diameter. I believe each cable was rated for 400 amps and we usually fed them with 4 cables for a total of 1,600 amps.
Regards,
Mark Beatty (CWO3, USN, Retired) :roll: