US or UK engineers may be brought in when Australia gets nuclear-powered submarines. 

Details of extensive plans to build a fleet of eight subs powered with weapons-grade uranium will be revealed next month. 

In an interview this week, Vice Admiral Jonathan Mead, chief of the AUKUS submarine taskforce, said Australia will have “command and control over the reactor, over the submarine - unequivocal”. 

However, the highly enriched uranium reactors that power the sub will be supplied by either the US or UK, and “welded shut”.

The high-energy fuel means the reactors do not need to be opened for refuelling over the 30-plus-year life of the boat. This means Australia will not need to manufacture nuclear fuel, which it has promised the International Atomic Energy Agency it would not do.

But Vice Admiral Mead says Australia will send people to US “design facilities” so the Navy can understand “every element of detail of that reactor”.

Vice Admiral Mead said Australia could begin construction of new boats in Adelaide “towards the end of this decade”, if the government can quickly finalise the construction of a revamped shipyard. 

He said the project will have extraordinary staffing requirements, requiring nuclear physicists, chemists and engineers, as well as specialist tradespeople.

More details are accessible here.