Why is nuclear-powered the standard for submarines, when not for ferry, small ships and vessels ?
In: Engineering
Nuclear reactors allow submarines to stay submerged for longer periods of time, which is a great advantage for a submarine. They’re also expensive and require the submarine to have radioactive material on board, which makes the submarine much more expensive to make (you also need to have ways to shield the crew from radiation.)
It makes sense to build a reactor on a submarine, and it makes sense to build them on massive ships like aircraft carriers… but you wouldn’t go to the expense of putting in a reactor on a small boat.
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