When the U.S. nuclear-powered attack submarine Thresher sank with 129 men and two nuclear-armed SUBROC missiles aboard, it was 1963, and the Cold War was at its height.

The submarine involved in the 1986 disaster was the K-219, a Navaga Class nuclear ballistic missile sub (SSBN) with the NATO designation of Yankee-class.

Commissioned in 1954, the USS Nautilus was the world's first nuclear-powered submarine. It was the first ship to visit the North Pole and participated in the Cuban missile crisis blockade.