Originally Posted by
ORAC
The PW2 is based in the Virginia S9G with a reactor life of 33 years. That gives a bit of leeway over the planned 25 service life of the submarine for up to another 8 years - depending on when the reactor went critical.
That's not the case. PWR2 went to sea on the V-boats in the early 90s, well over a decade before the Virginia class. The difference between the V-boat PWR 2 and the A-boat PWR 2 is the core design. V-boats designed to be refuelled and when that happened fitted with the new core design (core H).