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Originally Posted by John Channing
All boats of the period operated on this principal.
In fact, modern boats do too. But instead of using a deisel motor to turn the generators to create electricity, they use an atomic reactor to do it.
JCC
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Except that US (and British, and I believe Russian) nuclear boats have steam turbines for propulsion. Steam turbine generaters do produce the boats electrical power, but steam directly drives the propulsion turbine. The French navy uses nuclear power to generate electricity only, which then in turn powers electrical propulsion motors.
Things may be different with the US Virginia class, but the older nuke's used direct steam propulsion in a closed loop pressurized reactor system.