Enrico Fermi

archipeppe said:
The project ended in 1966 since Italian Government decided to use the money allocated for the Trieste to build a new nuclear 18.000 ship dubbed "Enrico Fermi".
In September 1970 even the Fermi project was stopped and the funds were exploited to allow Italy to join the MRCA Panavia Tornado programme.
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N/S Enrico Fermi

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As the result of the collaboration between CNEN [Comitato Nafcionale Energia Nucleare - Italian Committee for Nuclear Energy] and the Italian Navy, the "Enrico Fermi" a logistic support ship of 18,000 tons, was to be constructed, powered by an 80 MWt PWR. The end of 1969 coincided with the terminal phase of CNEN's second five-year plan. In the course of this second Five-Year Plan, important work was done in the field of reactors of ship propulsion, as a result of the activities of a Committee of Experts formed with the sponsorship of CNEN and composed of representatives of the various industrial sectors and government agencies concerned. An agreement between CNEN and the Italian Navy has then resulted in the overcoming of the last obstacles to the launching of a programme for the building of a Naval logistic support ship, powered by a pressurized-water reactor.

Italy had undertaken studies for the construction of its first nuclear ship (the Enrico Fermi) on the basis of a co-operation agreement between the CDEN (National Committee for Nuclear Energy) and the National Defense Ministry - Military Navy (Rome, 9th December 1966). This project concerned a "pilot ship" rather than a mercantile one, whose traveiling, once it is commissioned, might give rise to serious legal problems also connected with the ship's special characteristics.

The FIAT forwarded an offer for the nuclear power system and in 1970 it was considered that definition of the industrial agreement would be reached very soon. Over ninety percent of the nuclear plant components, including all the internal reactor parts, will be built by the national industry. CNEN would obviously have responsibility for the more strictly nuclear aspects of the project, including the critical experiment which will be completed in the next days at the CNEN Casaccia Center, while the Italian Navy will handle the building of the vessel.

The Enrico Fermi logistic support ship, was to have an 18,000 ton displacement, and the power plant, with an 80 MWt IWR, will have a 22,000 SHP power and a maximum speed of 20 knots. With the definition of industrial contracts, times may be speeded up and in 1970 it was considered that the ship will be at sea by 1972/3. The overall project cost was estimated at about 35 million dollars.

About 40 firms had full capability in manufacturing equipment for nuclear installations (both power stations and fuel - fabrication or reprocessing - facilities). Of them, six companies qualify as "general contractors" for the construction of complete plants, acting also as "chef de file" of consortia or groups with possible connections with international manufacturers. Three of these were public concerns: Snam Progetti of Sandonato Milanese, as company in the field for the ENI State Group, Ansaldo Meccanico Nucleare of Genao, as the leading company for the IRI-Finmeccanica State Group and Breda-Termomecanica & Locomotive of Milan as leading company for the EFIM State Group. The other three are private concerns: Montecatini Edison, which had concentrated the experience of Edison in the construction of the Trino Veroellese plant, the activities undertaken by the nuclear section of Montecatini and SNIA Viscoaa of Bombrinl Parodi-Delfino, the chemical company active in the construction for CNEN of the fuel plants EUREX and PCUT, and FIAT of Turin whose activities in the nuolear field include also the construction of the reactor for the Italian nuclear ship Enrico Fermi.

Methods had been formulated to treat the rod cluster control for present-generation pressurized water reactors within the computational codes available at Comitato Nazionale per l'Energia Nucleare (CNEN) for light water reactors. The reliability of these procedures had been verified by comparing the calculated results with the most significant experimental data available from measurements performed by the Centre d'Etude de l'Energie Nucleaire-Studiecentrum Voor Kernenergie (Belgian Plutonium Recycling Program), Babcock and Wilcox (Lumped Burnable Poison Program), Westinghouse, and CNEN (Italian Nuclear Ship Propulsion Program).

Italy was planning to rent two tons of enriched uranium from France for the reactor of its first nuclear ship, the Enrico Fermi. By 1971 this project was in abeyance.
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Dilandu said:
TomS said:
It seems odd not to have no missiles at all, but I think this just predates Aspide.
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May it be that they wanted this design to serve a prototype for nuclear helicopter cruiser?
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Of course, all the other Italian helicopter cruisers had Terrier.

If I was building this ship as a combatant, I'd absolutely strip off the 5-inch guns, put Terrier up front, and add a third pair of 3-inch guns on the hangar. But my word it would be expensive!
 
it does say support logistic ship which makes the cannons even more questionable tbf

why not just a pair (if that) of 3" guns on the front bow and the rest is like...RAS kingposts? bruh moment
 
TomS said:
Grey Havoc said:
TomS said:
Dilandu said:
Looks like she have enough guns for a helicopter cruiser...
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Enough guns for a task force.
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They certainly weren't underestimating the Soviet Mediterranean Fleet, or over-relying on escorts being available when needed.
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It seems odd not to have no missiles at all, but I think this just predates Aspide.
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Part of the Italian design philosophy was a belief that, in wartime, the Mediterranean would be a complex air and sea environment, with threats being identified at relatively short range and from multiple directions simultaneously. Guns were thought to have quicker response times than missiles, and could more easily be arranged to cover multiple axes.
 
Grey Havoc said:
Via the Italian Wikipedia page on the Enrico Fermi, an archived version of the webpage linked back then:

Storia della Marina

I programmi e le unità degli anni '60
web.archive.org

On a more recent note, here's a 2017 'Bollenttino D'Archivio' (Bulletin From the Archive, a publication of the Italian Navy's Historical Office) that includes an Italian language article on the Italy Navy's Cold War nuclear efforts, or at least the ones that have been declassified (PDF pages 66 - 105).


I'll attach a copy of the PDF (9.18 MB download) to this post in case of link rot.
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No, that is a well-known, but false, profile that has been circulating the internet for many years. Enrico Fermi's real design was a freighter, very similar in appearance to the Savannah.
 

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You are half right there; that is the early design of the Fermi, from back when the project was still just a MDD/navy sponsored civilian testbed. Because of funding concerns and some worries over what were then arising potential legal issues affecting the operation of atomic merchantmen visiting foreign ports, the program was changed in the second half of the 1960s to a naval operational test ship doubling as a fully functional logistics support vessel.
 
Grey Havoc said:
You are half right there; that is the early design of the Fermi, from back when the project was still just a MDD/navy sponsored civilian testbed. Because of funding concerns and some worries over what were then arising potential legal issues affecting the operation of atomic merchantmen visiting foreign ports, the program was changed in the second half of the 1960s to a naval operational test ship doubling as a fully functional logistics support vessel.
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I probably shouldn’t point this out, but the definitive Fermi support ship concept had plenty of room amidships for “Polaris” sized launch tubes. After all, the Italian ALFA SLBM was still a live program in this era, with possible Swiss support, as hard as it is to imagine now. With a SSBN far beyond the reach of Italy, a nuclear powered surface platform akin to the Kennedy era MLF concept, or refitted 4 Polaris tube cruiser Garibaldi, might have seemed plausible. Or at least plausible to the sort of people who continued developing ALFA well over a decade past the end of the MLF concept.

The absurdly heavy gun armament might actually make sense after all. Especially if land base air cover was provided.
 
Grey Havoc said:
You are half right there; that is the early design of the Fermi, from back when the project was still just a MDD/navy sponsored civilian testbed. Because of funding concerns and some worries over what were then arising potential legal issues affecting the operation of atomic merchantmen visiting foreign ports, the program was changed in the second half of the 1960s to a naval operational test ship doubling as a fully functional logistics support vessel.
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No. It was only a preliminary study of 1970, by Reparto Progetto Navi di Mariconav, and was another project.
 

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Mariconav was also the primary ship design authority on the Enrico Fermi, including its naval incarnation whose design you've posted there. I'm not sure if the 1970 study you're referring to was part of that program, or another nuclear powered design for the navy altogether.
 
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