The documentary trail becomes clearer in the 1940s, though interest may have begun with early nuclear science in the 1920s and 1930s. Britain and the United States had the industrial capacity and strategic incentive to explore naval reactors before the Soviet-American nuclear rivalry became the usual frame. Early investigation would likely have been covert because a workable design could give its sponsor a lead before rivals began copying it. The expense meant that only states able to fund an unusually demanding program could pursue the advantage.
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Naval nuclear power before the Cold War
The opening traces naval nuclear propulsion to a costly British and American search for strategic advantage that may have begun before the Cold War.