7 ms·
One ship could always go nuclear, or use wind.
by speedgoose 3y ago
One ship could always go nuclear, or use wind.
- noir_lord 3y agoRussia tried that for nuclear, it wasnt a success. Though that was because it was badly mismanaged and the technology wasn't there yet.
- mschuster91 3y agoWind doesn't work with container ships, the sails are in the way of the cargo cranes at port. Might be an interesting idea for passenger ships though, but even there... there are ports which have a height limit (e.g. Hamburg) because ships need to pass below bridges. Nuclear in civilian hands is an absolute no-go for proliferation / terrorism concerns.
- lucidguppy 3y agoSomeone should tell theses guys about wind power. https://www.cnn.com/2023/08/22/travel/wind-powered-cargo-ship-cargill-bartech-climate-c2e-spc-intl/index.html https://www.cnn.com/2023/08/22/travel/wind-powered-cargo-shi...
- dv_dt 3y agoWell there are cranes at the port, make the sails detachable and dismount them to load.
- smileysteve 3y ago2 proposed solutions for wind are 1. Kites attached by cable (deployed, high altitude for consistent winds) 2. Magnus effect cylindrical turbines that rise out of the ship.
- BoxOfRain 3y agoCivilian nuclear-powered cargo ships have actually been tried in the past, a large issue was that a lot of ports refused them entry if I remember correctly.
- pydry 3y agoThere's also the minor issue that they are, like most forms of nuclear power, hellishly expensive. Several have been built and people have generally gone "huh, thats cool but it's way too expensive". Thats the main reason why theres currently only 1 in the whole world.
- SoftTalker 3y agoThey are expensive because they don't externalize their environmental costs upon the rest of the world.
- pfdietz 3y agoThe environmental costs of renewables (other than biomass) are minor.
- codersfocus 3y agoThere could be nuclear “tanker” ships that recharge electric battery ships on their routes.
- boilerupnc 3y agoNice picts and walkthrough [0] of the NS Savannah, "the world's first, and only, nuclear-powered cruise ship. The Savannah is the only nuclear-powered merchant ship the U.S. ever built, and the only nuclear vessel in the world designed with passengers in mind." [0] https://www.npr.org/2023/06/23/1182973358/step-aboard-the-nuclear-powered-passenger-ship-of-tomorrow-from-1959 https://www.npr.org/2023/06/23/1182973358/step-aboard-the-nu...
- eesmith 3y agoI don't that that's the major issue. At least, the Wikipedia entry for the NS Savannah only mentions being excluded from Australia, New Zealand and Japan. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nuclear_marine_propulsion#Civilian_nuclear_ships https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nuclear_marine_propulsion#Civi... comments the major issue is the costs of specialized infrastructure, and points out how research about a modern design concluded "further maturity of nuclear technology and the development and harmonisation of the regulatory framework would be necessary before the concept would be viable."
- pfdietz 3y agoA fuel-powered ship can ramp output up and down as needed, since the per-power costs of the powerplant aren't that high. Nuclear power plants are much more expensive, and require a much higher (and more expensive) level of labor. These fixed costs are not reduced when full power is not needed.
- LorenPechtel 3y agoYup, this is the headache with nuclear--your marginal costs of generating power are very small (and I wouldn't be surprised to learn they're negative as big machines prefer to run at constant settings--it wouldn't shock me one bit if throttling it up and down causes more maintenance cost than fuel savings) and thus it's only sensible in environments where 100% throttle is useful, or in environments where cost isn't an important driving factor (military vessels) or fueling is problematic (IIRC Russia had a nuclear-powered icebreaker.) Put your reactors on land, when the grid has too much power you direct it to something like this (or the hydrogen generator that showed up here a few days ago) and convert it to chemical energy.