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> We can't generally install nuclear reactors in civilian vessels due to high costs Is that so? Diesel generators aren't competitive for producing grid electri
by jabl 7y ago
> We can't generally install nuclear reactors in civilian vessels due to high costs
Is that so? Diesel generators aren't competitive for producing grid electricity (except for isolated islands etc.), whereas nuclear is.
- JorgeGT 7y agoA big ship is essentially a small isolated island, the kind where you can usually still find diesel power stations.
- jabl 7y agoFair point. Though small nuclear power plants haven't really been a thing so far, and GHG emissions hasn't been such a big issue either. And thus diesel generators have been the default choice. We'll see I guess.
- Xylakant 7y agoGenerally, building things on land has substantially other constraints than on a ship. You have substantially more space and weight is much less of a concern. Usually, power plants on land are built much larger than on sea, leveraging different scale economies.
- jabl 7y agoTrue, though the promise of all these SMR's under development currently is to leverage series manufacturing and get cost savings that way, rather than scaling everything up ever bigger as traditional nuclear plants. If it turns out SMR's meet their promises, I guess the same economic principles could be applicable for ships as well.
- PeterisP 7y agoNuclear reactors are cost-efficient on large scale, and quite expensive on smaller scale; if you have nuclear reactor that makes 100 times less power, you don't get 100 times less complexity/risks/maintenance/manpower/etc. Nuclear power makes sense for if you need a lot of power for a ship and/or very long range without refueling, so aircraft carriers, missile subs and (barely) long-range icebreakers are a good fit; but diesel is not a big problem for a ship that's designed to be fuel efficient and is on a route where it can refuel frequently.