Palantir CTO calls for Nuclear cargo ships

[silverbk]

Palantir CTO: ‘I Think We Should Build the First Commercial Nuclear-Powered...

[yacht_sailor]

Nuclear ships may be a lot of things, but cheap isn’t one of them. Market-rate insurance would be eye-watering if available at all for one thing.

[ombugge]

I don’t think anybody is seriously looking at duplicating navy type reactors for civilian use,

More likely is small compact and sealed molten salt reactors:

Modular Molten Salt Nuclear Power for Maritime Propulsion

These doesn’t require special skills or training to operate.

PS> They are also less likely to cause NIMBY reaction at every port.

Several project has been proposed. Here is one:

China reveals molten-salt nuclear reactor-driven 24,000-TEU box ship design

They could also be made small enough to fit in coasters, tugs or trucks:

This micro molten salt reactor is designed to fit on a truck

[ombugge]

Getting nuclear for maritime over the hump - Splash247

Nuclear energy is the best solution because it both improves energy effectiveness by orders of magnitude and emits nothing. And we know it works. Pressurised Water Reactors (a common type of nuclear reactor) have operated safely at sea on warships since the 1950s, but a PWR on commercial ships cannot be insured when moving in ports and waterways. That’s the reason we don’t have civilian nuclear-powered ships trading internationally today. Not safety, not economics, not public opinion; but insurance.

The work of recently formed Nuclear Energy Maritime Organization (NEMO) is to help revise the terms of the Convention to allow for Maritime Civil Nuclear Propulsion to be commercially insured. Combining new nuclear technology solutions with an entirely commercially focused convention, gets us over the hump.

NEMO | Nuclear Energy Maritime Organisation