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The Rolls-Royce Pressurised Water Reactor 2 (PWR2) is the latest nuclear reactor designed to power the Royal Navy's submarines. The PWR2 was developed for the Vanguard SSBNs and is a development of the PWR1, which powered the Resolution SSBNs. Rolls-Royce claim that the PWR2 can deliver six times the power of the original PWR1 and last four times as long. The PWR2 will also power the Royal Navy's new Astute SSNs. As they were developed for SSBNs, the reactors are considerably larger than those of current British SSNs. The diameter of Astute class hulls have therefore been increased to accommodate the PWR2. The major advantage of this is the fact that the PWR2 now features long life cores which will power the submarine throughout its life, without the need for expensive refueling during refits.
The first PWR was completed in 1985 with testing beginning in August 1987 at the Ministry of Defence's naval test reactor site at Dounreay, Scotland.
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