Why don civilian commercial ships and cruise ships use nuclear power?
As a favorite author of mine once wrote: “Any time someone asks ‘why don’t they…’ the reason is almost always money.” Nuclear power wouldn’t be cost effective for most civilian operations. Not only is a nuclear power plant very expensive both to built and maintain, it would also cost a great deal more to hire nuclear qualified and certified personnel to run it. In short, the cost of using nuclear power for most civilian maritime uses would vastly outweigh any potential advantage. Shultz: Please read the answer carefully. There is much more cost involved in running a nuclear power plant for a ship than just the cost of fuel. In addition to what I already mentioned, there are the regulatory issues, which would be different for every country (and at least one, Japan, doesn’t allow nuclear powered vessels in her national waters at all), making the cost of nuclear power for commercial vessels prohibitive. Trust me, if it was commercially feasible, it would be done. If you know some OTHER
Well, your hunch concerning the safety issue is not the reason why. The NS Savannah was built by the United States as a concept ship to demonstrate the feasibility of using nuclear power for commercial ships. It was an extremely successful concept in terms of operability, but it failed for a couple of good reasons: Number one was the fact that she wasn’t designed to be an optimal commercial vessel. She was designed for looks and dual purpose: passenger AND cargo. As a result, she couldn’t carry nearly as much cargo as a commercial cargo vessel and she couldn’t carry nearly as many passengers as passenger liners. Not by far. And the designs that went into the visual aesthetics further reduced her commercial use. She was a FINE looking vessel indeed, but what works well for looks doesn’t work well for maximizing cargo space. So she lost revenue because of that. Second, there was the cost of operating her. It’s expensive to train and pay the people required to operate and maintain her. Ad
