re: Actually, this is a joke.
Yep, I actually served on a sub where I operated that panel. The big wheel on the left is a throttle for the main engine. It took about 20 spins of that thing to go from shut to full open. The center part was the reactor control panel where you manipulated the control rods and watched pressures and levels of the reactor components. The right section was the electrical control panel where you routed electricity from the various sources of power. I spent most of my time in that area.
Art