China’s Nuclear-Powered Containership: A Fluke Or The Future Of Shipping?::Since China State Shipbuilding Corporation (CSSC) unveiled its KUN-24AP containership at the Marintec China Expo in Shanghai in early December of 2023, the internet has been abuzz about it. Not jus…
Nuclear powered ships are not a new thing. They’ve been around for decades. They would benefit our emission a lot. Let’s hope that they will be allowed in the ports around the world, this has been the greatest limitation so far. Convincing general population that nuclear can be safe is no easy feat.
They’re not a new idea, but the problem is that actually taking one into a port is a regulatory nightmare. Most jurisdictions have very, very strict rules around the handling of nuclear materials and would rather just say “Fuck off” than even contemplate the nightmare of getting something like into their waters with all of the proper tests and inspections completed.
This is what killed nuclear cargo ships in the past. Ports just don’t want such things coming in all the time.
We are burning and drowning so I hope here is enough of a desire to make it happen this time.
Militaries have a stellar record of not melting down their ships (fact check me someone I havent looked this up) with barely trained 18 year olds, so until we have a renewable energy storage that can power a cargo vessel around the world without taking up too much mass, this might be the best option.
I hear sails are coming back too though.
If you’re somewhere near Connecticut, the first-ever nuclear powered ship got turned into a museum in Groton
Which is ironic considering that fossil fuels have resulted in orders of magnitude more preventable deaths than nuclear. Bunker fuel is nasty stuff