Why The World Was Afraid Of This Ship: The N.S. Savannah

With sleek, futuristic lines and shining red and white paint, N.S. Savannah was designed to stand out. But what really set it apart was it’s powerplant - at the heart of the ship was a 74 megawatt pressurized water reactor, making Savannah the world’s first nuclear powered merchant ship. Launched in the summer of 1959, Savannah was built to prove that nuclear energy could safely power civilian merchant ships of the future, promising to make cargo and cruise ships more economical, reliable and faster. It would also allow ships to travel for years before needing to refuel, offering increased flexibility and operating time.

As the first of its kind, Savannah carried both passengers and cargo to demonstrate the safety and reliability of nuclear propulsion for all kinds of civilian uses. When it came to engineering, Savannah was an undeniable success, as it outperformed even its designer's expectations when it came to speed and reliability. Savannah also helped inspire other countries to build their own nuclear powered cargo ships. But the once celebrated ship would last only five years before being pulled from service. The dream of a cleaner, more efficient nuclear powered future would suddenly end, just as it seemed to be getting started.


Thanks for watching!

[MustardChannel]

Happy 2022! What topics would you like to see covered in the coming year? (edit.. it's 2022...Ooff)

[untruelie]

Fun fact: The first Captain of the "Otto Hahn" was Heinrich Lehmann-Willenbrock, german U-Boat ace during WW2 and the direct inspiration for the U-Boat commander in the famous novel (and later movie) "Das Boot".

[theowlfromduolingo]

Yes, if radioactive accidents occur, it has terrible consequences. But if we look at the many disastrous oil leaks in the world’s oceans in the past, the millions of deaths due to air pollution each year (plus the serious long-term environmental damage process of the global on-shore and off-shore oil industry in the first place), it’s definitely worth considering switching to nuclear power...

[Matteo_Licata]

I had no idea civilian nuclear vessels were ever made. And watching a Mustard video is a very pleasant way to learn anything. The finest channel on YouTube, by a large margin.

[thomasdragosr.]

One other problem for Savannah was the fact that it came along when traditional cargo ships were being replaced with container ships that can carry more cargo.

[isaacstevens]

The NS Savannah is still docked in the ports at Baltimore, and it's a public museum now. The fuel is removed, and the reactor decommissioning is slowly getting done, but it's a wonderful look into such a bright nuclear age. I've been, and I recommend it for anyone who's near and into this kind of thing.

[somnathbose]

I remember this ship, from a clear afternoon in the English Channel back in 1967, literally walk (more like run ) past my steam turbine ship, trudging along at 15 knots . Was a cadet then, standing watch on the bridge . Even managed to get a snap on my Kodak box camera . Thanks for the detailed explanation .

[sebastiaomendonca]

Fun fact, there are still technically two remaining nuclear "cruise" ships that you can pay to travel aboard. Russia's Yamal and 50 Let Pobedy are nuclear powered icebreakers that take paying passengers to the north pole.

[hl]

As a child I watched this ship sail down the channel on its visit to my hometown, Savannah, GA. At 6:22 in your video it shows the NS Savannah in the Savannah River along with a motor yacht named "The Flying Lady". The grandfather of a childhood friend was the captain of that vessel at the time.

[eypandabear]

Fun fact: The captain of the NS Otto Hahn was the former real-life captain of the WW2 submarine U-96, on which the novel and movie "Das Boot" are based.

[whirledpeaz]

I served on Nimitz class carrier, the very one you showed 11:50 USS Eisenhower CVN69. NO berthings were located near the 2 reactor plants.
I worked in those reactor plants. In the 4 years I was aboard, my total radiation dose was less than if I spent a day at the beach

[edbrook]

honestly this guy deserves some sort of award at this point

[xRadiox]

i served on a nuclear submarine in the US Navy and it was awesome. We wore "TLD's" to measure the amount of radiation we received while onboard, but we were often told that you get more radiation from the sun in one day than you do from three months underway. Either way, I am huge proponent of nuclear energy, especially with today's better understanding of better and safer operations.

[justanotheryoutubechannel]

Yea, I think I probably would. It wouldn’t bother me at all since the chances of one actually going wrong is minuscule, and I expect the ride would be much more efficient and nice.

[guard]

It's so depressing to see all these things from the past where we almost took the correct turn into the good future, but people let their fears and a few mistakes ruin everything.

[MayaPosch]

The fun thing about nuclear power is that it's so unsafe that you could have a Chernobyl-style (Gen I graphite pile reactor with no containment) disaster every single year, and you'd still have fewer deaths and pollution/contamination from that event than from fossil fuel usage while ignoring the deaths and damage from fly ash spills and other accidents.

Heck, the pollutants from marine diesel are so bad, that people die near harbours every single year from COPD and other health issues. It's a major issue in e.g. NYC with the cruise ships that tend to leave their diesels idling while moored.

Great example of how irrational fear ended up killing thousands more than would have if the world had gone nuclear last century.

[RoscoesRiffs]

At the time my dad, a WW II Navy veteran, was an electrical engineer at the Oak Ridge National Laboratories specializing in air-filtration systems for nuclear reactors. He spent months away from our home in Kingston, TN, helping build the Savannah.

[edwardmeade]

Back in the summer of 1970, I sailed as crew on the last voyage of this ship (Bayonne NJ to Galveston TX). The ship actually had four purposes. Besides cargo and passengers, she also had a school and a laboratory. There were extensive classrooms and student staterooms for the training of future nuclear engineers. The ship was also highly instrumented, much more so than any future commercial ship would be or than modern naval ships are today. What killed the N.S. Savannah's career was the same thing that killed similar conventionally powered passenger/cargo vessels like the Grace Line's Santa Rosa and Santa Paula. Passengers started flying and cargo started to be put in containers.

[Waldemarvonanhalt]

Just for those curious: Water is dense enough to completely absorb all ionizing radiation once it's a few meters deep. It's possible to look directly at Cherenkov radiation in "open pool" reactors without any danger to your health.

[leonkrohm]

I hate how nuclear power is always seen as dangerous even though it is next to green energy one of the most safe