6 ms·

The U.S. Navy seems to operate a bunch of floating (and some submersible) nuclear power plants in the ocean without too much trouble.

madez 8y ago
Without too much trouble that we know of. And a small number of small reactors. I think it is extremely irresonsible to build military equipment with nuclear reactors. They are destroyed in conflict, polluting everything.
fucking_tragedy 8y ago
Correct me if I'm wrong, but I'm pretty sure the scale is much different.
- acidburnNSA 8y ago
  Not too different. Subs can be a few hundred megawatts, vs. a few thousand in power plants.
  - bronson 8y ago
    Only an order of magnitude or two.
    - acidburnNSA 8y ago
      You can fit about 2 GW-scale AP1000 reactors on a big ship.
    - vonmoltke 8y ago
      There are no single reactors putting out tens of GW, so just one (at most).
gricardo99 8y ago
Here’s a list of sunken U.S. and Soviet nuclear submarines. And by “nuclear”, it means propulsion/reactor, not just nuclear warheads. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_sunken_nuclear_submarines https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_sunken_nuclear_subma...
- fovc 8y ago
  """ Of the nine sinkings, two were caused by fires, two by explosions of their weapons systems, two by flooding, one by bad weather, and one by scuttling due to a damaged nuclear reactor. """
  - garmaine 8y ago
    Well we all know the one scuttled due to damaged reactor was actually a cover story for defecting with first strike technology to the Americans...
    - dboreham 8y ago
      ...and to live in Montana, owning a pickup truck..
      - garmaine 8y ago
        with two wives!
    - Fej 8y ago
      No one got the reference. Unfortunate. (for those looking, it's to the movie The Hunt for Red October)
- RugnirViking 8y ago
  and yet despite that, we have yet to see significant effects on any of our daily lives from any of it.
  - 8y ago
bronson 8y ago
But what about scale? Sub reactors are tiny! Never more than a few hundred MW, with relatively little fuel. Typical powerplant reactors operate in the TWs.
- acidburnNSA 8y ago
  *Typical power plants reactors operate in the GW, not TW. So there's about an order of magnitude difference between subs and power plants, not 4 orders of magnitude.
- ChuckMcM 8y ago
  Your scale is off a bit. The Fukishima reactors were 484 MW to 1.1GW. Diablo Canyon, a fairly "new" (and now unused) Nuclear reactor setup in California were both units under 1.2GW. The reactors on the "Ford" class aircraft carriers are reported to produce about 700MW each.
  - bronson 8y ago
    Arg, I can't believe I brain-fumbled that. I meant to type GW. Wish I could still edit. Yes, it's 1-2 orders of magnitude.

madez 8y ago

Without too much trouble that we know of. And a small number of small reactors. I think it is extremely irresonsible to build military equipment with nuclear reactors. They are destroyed in conflict, polluting everything.

fucking_tragedy 8y ago

Correct me if I'm wrong, but I'm pretty sure the scale is much different.

acidburnNSA 8y ago
Not too different. Subs can be a few hundred megawatts, vs. a few thousand in power plants.
- bronson 8y ago
  Only an order of magnitude or two.
  - acidburnNSA 8y ago
    You can fit about 2 GW-scale AP1000 reactors on a big ship.
  - vonmoltke 8y ago
    There are no single reactors putting out tens of GW, so just one (at most).

gricardo99 8y ago

Here’s a list of sunken U.S. and Soviet nuclear submarines. And by “nuclear”, it means propulsion/reactor, not just nuclear warheads. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_sunken_nuclear_submarines https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_sunken_nuclear_subma...

fovc 8y ago
""" Of the nine sinkings, two were caused by fires, two by explosions of their weapons systems, two by flooding, one by bad weather, and one by scuttling due to a damaged nuclear reactor. """
- garmaine 8y ago
  Well we all know the one scuttled due to damaged reactor was actually a cover story for defecting with first strike technology to the Americans...
  - dboreham 8y ago
    ...and to live in Montana, owning a pickup truck..
    - garmaine 8y ago
      with two wives!
  - Fej 8y ago
    No one got the reference. Unfortunate. (for those looking, it's to the movie The Hunt for Red October)
RugnirViking 8y ago
and yet despite that, we have yet to see significant effects on any of our daily lives from any of it.
- 8y ago

bronson 8y ago

But what about scale? Sub reactors are tiny! Never more than a few hundred MW, with relatively little fuel. Typical powerplant reactors operate in the TWs.

acidburnNSA 8y ago
*Typical power plants reactors operate in the GW, not TW. So there's about an order of magnitude difference between subs and power plants, not 4 orders of magnitude.
ChuckMcM 8y ago
Your scale is off a bit. The Fukishima reactors were 484 MW to 1.1GW. Diablo Canyon, a fairly "new" (and now unused) Nuclear reactor setup in California were both units under 1.2GW. The reactors on the "Ford" class aircraft carriers are reported to produce about 700MW each.
- bronson 8y ago
  Arg, I can't believe I brain-fumbled that. I meant to type GW. Wish I could still edit. Yes, it's 1-2 orders of magnitude.