@chryse: That's probably true now (although I doubt it....each reactor is capable of 500+ megawatts) but my company is already looking in to ways to decrease the power needed for the system. The Gerald Ford isn't launching until 2015, by then the inverters will be smaller and more efficient.

@Daveinva: Luckily my berthing was way in the back of the ship a couple decks down, never really heard the cat shots.

Need to get this case then do this to complete the illusion:

@GoNUKES: Yep, I was a nuke as well. Not on the Reagan, though.

@laylaholic: Actually, surprisingly the F/A-18's were louder than the Tomcats. I didn't work on the flight deck but went up to the observation area to watch flight ops a lot.

Are you f**king kidding me? How can I get off this rock, as this is surely a sign of the impending apocalypse!

@peasant slayer: Tell me about it! Part of my job on the ship was to monitor what we called "makeup water" essentially adding more water to the feed system to replenish what was lost with each launch.

@peasant slayer: It's not so much to launch from shorter distances, it's more to make the whole system more flexible. Currently with steam you only have 1 pressure that can be used, so you have to make it at least enough to launch your biggest plane. The new electromagnetic system will be able to adjust the power…

@peasant slayer: The way they currently work is to send steam from the steam generators up to a big accumulator underneath the flight deck. That holds steam at the required pressure, which is then released when a plane needs to be launched. Then more steam is let into the accumulator in between launches. When doing…

@Canoehead: We could easily run the whole ship with just one reactor, though. Did it a few times so we could do maintenance that required the reactor to be shut down. We would do something called cross connecting the steam plants so the steam generated in one plant is directed to all the ships turbines.

@peasant slayer: They won't be steam powered for long. The next generation catapults will be electromagnetic. The newest carrier, the Gerald Ford, will have the new catapults, not sure how long it will take to retrofit the older carriers.

Those are going away soon. The company I work for is working on the replacements which will be electromagnetic instead of steam driven.

@larry.yuan: Old joke is Old

@SupaPhly: Depleted Uranium

@KyleUndefined: nope, the Mythbusters busted that one already.

@d3c509b aka Steve: I'm even crazier...I'm probably moving to Minnesota from San Diego in the spring. But for me it's to move home and be closer to my family

@Platypus Man: HA! Ohio definitely does not have "real" winter.

@cmdtacos: very good advice!

I'm kinda surprised there's more Star Trek references than Angels & Demons. Especially since this announcement takes us a huge step closer to the events of A&D

@DustyButt: I know the feeling. Every time I read about CERN doing something cool I get all excited.