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The Case for Nuclear Cargo Ships
- delichon 3y ago> large container ship needs about 3,000 megawatt-hours a day The internets say that a megawatt-hour can power about 750 households, making the reactor for one container ship enough for 2 million households and change. Can that be right? It seems way too high for my intuition. But if we can build such small reactors reliable enough to work in the extremely hostile marine environment, we'd be climbing the learning curve to make them safe enough to power cities. I bet Hyman Rickover thought of that.
- nradov 3y agoSure, let's have nuclear powered cargo ships. Put the nuclear reactors on land where they can be secured, and use the heat and power to synthesize liquid hydrocarbon fuels to run the ships. Realistically most nations aren't ever going to allow nuclear powered merchant vessels into their ports due to concerns about terrorism and accidents.
- thedogeye 3y agoGreat idea let’s sail them through the bab al mandeb