16_Civilian_Nuclear

coal2nuclear.com A Plan for Our Planet
►to CONTENTS page > 16 CIVILIAN NUCLEAR SHIPS Back <> to NEXT page

Chapter 16.
Civilian Nuclear Ships

("Mininuke" - Think about the small reactors being used to power aircraft carriers and submarines. Submarine reactor cores are the size of a desk.)

US Researchers Raise Alarm Over Commercial Vessels' Pollution. The AP (3/30) reported, "U.S. researchers say commercial vessels on the ocean are causing enough air pollution to cause 'a significant health concern' for coastal communities." They say that "diesel engines aboard freighters, tankers and cruise ships are producing as much pollution as 300 million cars - about half the world's cars." The oil is the dirtiest type: Bunker oil, which makes this particulate pollution on only 9% of the world's oil. -- All large ocean-going ships could and should have nuclear engines.

Some civilian ocean-going nuclear ships:

Commercial Nuclear Ships .pdf

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_civilian_nuclear_ships

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NS_Savannah U.S. Freighter

Within the larger containment vessel, the reactor itself was housed within a "primary shield." This shield was a water-filled, 17' high, 2" to 4" thick lead tank. The reactor's active core was a circular right cylinder 62" in diameter and 66" high. The core was made up of 32 fuel elements. Each fuel element comprised 164 stainless steel fuel rods, .5" in diameter. The rods contained uranium oxide pellets, enriched to an average of 4.4 percent of U-235. The fuel rods in the centermost 16 fuel elements contained uranium oxide at an enrichment of 4.2 percent U-235, and in the outer 16 fuel elements the enrichment was 4.6 percent U-235. This compares to the longer lasting, 90 percent enriched uranium used in Navy reactors. Savannah's uranium oxide pellets, were .4255" in diameter, and the space between the pellets and the inner tube wall contained helium gas under pressure to assure good heat transfer across the fuel rod. -- Rod Adams (Right) U.S. NS Savannah

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Otto_Hahn_(ship)_ German Freighter

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mutsu_(ship)_ Japanese Freighter

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sevmorput Russian Freighter

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lenin_(nuclear_icebreaker)_ Russian Ice Breaker

Nuclear ship propulsion technology:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nuclear_marine_propulsion

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_United_States_Naval_reactors

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_Naval_reactor

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Naval_Reactors

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Naval_Nuclear_Power_School

Russian floating nuclear dual 70-megawatt electrical power station:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Russian_floating_nuclear_power_station
Russia to build floating Arctic nuclear stations.pdf
Russia will build floating nuclear power plants.pdf

Claimed to be big enough to power a city of 200,000 and a heat source for a 64 million gallon per day sea water desalination facility.

Reactor on a barge. Russian commercial product.

Combination nuclear power generation and desalination units.

NEWS ITEMS

China looks at nuclear-powered cargo ships

04 December 2009

[Seatrade Asia Online, 2 December] The head of Chinese shipping giant Cosco has suggested that container ships should be powered by nuclear reactors in order to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from shipping, said to account for 4% of the global total. Shipping companies have gradually been introducing 'super slow steaming', a measure designed to cut fuel consumption and substantially reduce emissions by running engines at very low speed. However, Wei Jiafu, Cosco's president and CEO, speaking at the Senior Maritime Forum of the China International Maritime Exhibition (Marintec China) in Shanghai, said that introducing nuclear-powered ships could be an even cleaner solution. He said, "As they are already onboard submarines, why not cargo ships?" He said that Cosco is in talks with China's nuclear authority to develop nuclear powered freight vessels.