The US uses nuclear power aircraft carriers. Is this efficient? What are the drawbacks? Could the same systems theoretically be used in cars?
In: 15
Nuclear reactors do not require frequent refueling like combustion engines. You typically refuel them during refits, about once a decade, rather then constantly. That means that the aircraft carriers can operate for weeks without any supply ships or even years if they get supplied with food and ammunition from cargo aircraft. The nuclear reactors are however large, expensive and complex systems. So they require a lot of buoyancy and crew. Even the smallest and lightest nuclear reactors we have could not even fit on a locomotive, although there are efforts of making them smaller. There is also a lot of radioactive material in the nuclear reactors so that you need to take care when decommissioning the ship so as to prevent radioactive contamination of the environment. This is especially challenging if the vessel gets sunk either on accident or on purpose. So far there are several nuclear powered vessels which have been sunk and fortunately we have not had any significant environmental impact from them but we might end up contaminating some area of the ocean with radioactive materials. Still a better track record then oil tankers though.
Latest Answers