Are Renewable Powered Ships Possible?

Discussion in 'Boat Design' started by Velsia, Nov 25, 2020.

  1. brendan gardam
    Joined: Feb 2020
    Posts: 367
    Likes: 45, Points: 28
    Location: east gippsland australia

    brendan gardam Senior Member

    thats a very interesting career you have had fred. what about the latest model reactors, are they safer.
     
  2. fredrosse
    Joined: Jan 2005
    Posts: 439
    Likes: 81, Points: 38, Legacy Rep: 56
    Location: Philadelphia PA

    fredrosse USACE Steam

    "I'm curious, what does the military do? Do the governors have anything to say about them moving nuclear things around at will?"

    You should know that the US Military transports nuclear weapons all over the place, and non-military people may sometimes influence this, but national security dictates this, and is generally not under the jurisdiction of civilian state governments. Commercial (non-military) nuclear power does fall under the jurisdiction of state governments, and this is where they can refuse to allow over the road transport of the dangerous cargo.

    Also note that the military weapons are so so much smaller than a nuclear plant fuel offload that they are essentially "trivial" compared to the 1000 megawatt reactor fuel load. I say "trivial" with "tongue in cheek", as we know from Hiroshima, many would not consider the radioactive release from that 20 kiloton bomb as "trivial", but as previously mentioned, a commercial reactor fuel load is around 1000 times more radioactive activity.
     
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  3. fredrosse
    Joined: Jan 2005
    Posts: 439
    Likes: 81, Points: 38, Legacy Rep: 56
    Location: Philadelphia PA

    fredrosse USACE Steam

    Nuclear reactor designs have evolved somewhat in the last few decades, but there is always the compromise of cost vs. safety standards. One important aspect of nuclear safety is absolute reliability of reactor core cooling for potential accidents, a core "meltdown" is a very very big NO-NO in all the design standards, yet this happened at Three Mile Island, this happened at Chernobyl, this happened in Japan recently , and at some smaller military reactors too. A nuclear submarine resides in a very large and reliable cooling pool, the ocean. I would be more comfortable if nuclear plants were built submerged in a big water body, however none of them could be considered as reliable as the ocean! And the "bean counters" would never build with this philosophy, just way too expensive to consider.

    So, in summary, yes, the newer generation of reactors are marginally safer, but still a big compromise is necessary to allow them to be economic, which is what drives every design, except for the military.
     
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  4. Rumars
    Joined: Mar 2013
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    Location: Germany

    Rumars Senior Member

    Thanks, I also tought so, after all the US has nuclear powered ships on the west coast. I imagine their reactor cores are at least as bad as the commercial ones, after all they run on very high enriched fuel, that has to account for their smaller size.
     
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