How is it safe to have a nuclear reactor on aircraft carriers and submarines when they are a potential military targets?
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I was a nuclear trained electrician on a sub for 4 years. There is definitely inherent danger with having nuclear reactors on the boats. A few random thoughts in no particular order:
1) The Navy has operated without any major nuclear accidents since the inception of it’s nuclear program. This has a lot to do with smart design, but the training program is also very intense.
2) A nuclear explosion cannot happen from a nuclear reactor. Consider how hard it was for the Manhattan project to be successful (academically speaking). If a submarine’s reactor gets hit by a tornado the worst it can do is meltdown, at which point the submarine is guaranteed to go the bottom of the ocean. If a submarine was in port in shallow waters, that would be a problem that needed to be dealt with and cleaned up. If they sink in hundreds of feet of water, well, that’s no problem for humans anymore.
3) Some countries won’t let nuclear powered vessels moor at their piers. The list of ports I could visit on a nuclear powered submarine was less than those ships that were diesel powered (cruisers, destroyers, etc.).
4) A submarine that sinks to the bottom of the ocean is absolutely leaking radiation like crazy down there. Water quickly absorbs all of it before it reaches humans, but at the end of the day it’s probably speeding up evolution in the surrounding ecosystem.
So having a nuclear reactor doesn’t necessarily make it a bigger target, but there are more risks with having one on board. If you’re curious as to why you would want a reactor over a diesel engine:
1) Diesel engines require a lot of air. If the diesel eats up all the air in the sub then there is none for me (it actually draws a vacuum on the sub and kills you that way). So our options are to stick a mast out of the water and suck air, or operate off the battery (which doesn’t last that long!)
2) With enriched uranium, the ships with reactors only need to refuel once every few decades. Imagine stocking enough diesel fuel to last 20+ years, what kind of explosion could you make if you hit that with a torpedo?! (a dumb question but still fun to think about)
So it’s a no-brainer to put reactors on a submarine, and the power requirements of an aircraft carrier make it seem just as necessary.
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