106: A Pile of Shipping - Nuclear Powered Ships

Matt and Sean talk about the concerns, costs and advantages to nuclear powered shipping.

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[hofimastah]

Why not a nuclear tug boat? It could wait on international waters to not freak out people and pull multiple boats with the eight system and with good logistics it wouldn't wait at all

[dannyhorton]

LFTR is cheaper and safer than the style of nuclear reactors we have now. That style of reactor was known to be a possibility, when we developed the ones we have. Thorium couldn't be used for bombs, though.

[ivailoi]

What about nuclear thug boat, that never goes to port. It pulls a traditional old ship only on the long ocean voyage. They can be small very strong and storm resistant and have armed guards. The whole ship can be built as impenetrable panic room. If it is small and not carrying cargo it can be furnished as 5 star hotel

[alentrav]

Ugh it sucks when things like work and family keep us from enjoying our favorite podcasts! But I'm here now and happy

[AskIveSolar]

Workflow question?
Are these available when Matt's video launches? If no, you might find it better to delay a video until after this is recorded and then end card the follow up conversation so people can roll right into it. Or maybe have a clip from this Convo play at the end of Matt's video.

I suggest that because some videos are so intriguing and cool that I wonder what y'all will have to say right after.

[Alxki]

The US navy mistakingly rammed a nuclear submarine into an island. Reactor was fine.
The UK did the same, with the same result. A french and UK boat also hit each other directly underwater. Reactors were fine.

[ΘάνατοςΧορτοφάγος]

Ships dont use diesel, its fuel oil (bunker oil, heavy oil, or whatever its called where you live). It is bad bad stuff. And even worse that only in some waters, emissions are regulated, on the open sea, burn baby burn.
Piracy is a real concern, but nuclear ships sound real good.

[brendoncummins]

If a shipyard got the G8 countries together with a regulatory plan of: inspection before entry, fast pass into port, power generation while in port, ready to go battery storage integration, and a willingness to pull licensure (aka lease/repo the self contained power pack)... this might be a viable alternative.

[gordybishop]

If this really was a decent option....the US Navy would of been doing it already.

[IronmanV]

Ammonia as fuel is a much better alternative as it can be used as fuel in existing marine diesels with little modification.

Nuclear not only costs too much, it takes too long and there are almost always delays. Just look at the Flamanville 3 facility in France, or the Vogtle expansion in Georgia, USA.

[MadMadCommando]

There is another problem: current naval reactors use highly enriched fuel because they need to have a higher power/weight ratio then land based reactors, furthering proliferation risk. New generation reactors could be used, and the cost per reactor can be mitigated through economies of scale, but it's extremely hard to start the ball rolling. I think nuclear ships have a niche in very large ~50K TEU containerships which could afford the expensive crewing requirements through sheer scale and charging a premium for speed since they'd be able to run at ~30kt since fuel costs are not a concern.

[BobHannent]

Some shipping companies work around responsibility for vessels by putting the vessel in its own company where liability is limited.
So you would have to say that you can't fly a flag of convenience and the company would have to have some kind of assurance around their licence.
Perhaps also the International Nuclear Regulatory Agency should issue the licences and require annual inspection of the vessels (perhaps at sea so the vessel doesn't have to harbour?).
In terms of people's paranoia, you could build off-shore transfer platforms which shift the cargo onto big barges or coastal ships that can be taken to the local ports for off-loading. Such an off-shore transfer also allows you to scale ports better and help alleviate the issues recently seen of the cost of LA.

[blcstriker]

If we can hove nuclear powered subs, I don't see why not ships.

[davelindenmuth]

I wonder if those “modular reactors” from a previous video might not be a viable option for nuclear powered ships…

[DarnokIksnibiks]

Since marinetime laws fall under international, probably UN, could it be ruled that all civilian nuclear powered ships have to be registered under UN flag, instead of low cost countries? Then all top notch safety standards could be enforced and corner cutting would be contained somewhat.

[theproceedings]

Reactor grade uranium is 3-5 percent uranium 235. To build a bomb above critical mass from uranium 235, you need a concentration of 85 percent or more with a reaction mass greater than 47 kg. That much high grade uranium would be extremely hard to get out of a ship, since the centrifuges required to refine it and the knowledge of how to set the bomb off properly are prohibitively hard problems to solve. In addition, how would you expect to steal a giant cargo ship and not get caught, the reactor would need to cool down before the fuel rods could be removed, then you would be working with highly irradiated (hot) material requiring a large and skilled workforce. Any entity with that scale of power already has access to natural uranium and therefore no impetus to cause a war. Reactors are not a good source of weapons grade fissionable material, period.

[noahapatoff]

You only need a high school education and a training program to work in a nuclear power plant. It doesn't take a college degree. I don't think there will be a shortage of operators.

[muten]

Please not this childish insights, of how easy and good nuclear reactors are made. Check the past of (mobile) nucluear reactors. All difficulties of the past are yet unsolved.

[cybergigafactory]

The pirate idea alone would be enough to don’t do that.
What could a bad actor do with a bunch of same nuclear reactors… I don’t want to know that for sure 😅

[gordybishop]

Come on....if you can't sell to one country you just use a middle man. Can't believe you even thought that.