Nuclear power for the propulsion of commercial shipping¹

Article type: Research Article

Authors: Cockcroft, John

Note: [1] Paper read before the North East Coast Institution of Engineers and Shipbuilders on the 31st October 1958.

Abstract: The lecture reviews the present state of development of nuclear propulsion for shipping in the light of the technical performance of the U.S. nuclear submarines and the information disclosed at the Geneva Conference on the development of commercial nuclear propulsion. Five types of nuclear reactor for propulsion purposes have so far been considered: the pressurized-water reactor, the boiling-water reactor, the sodium-cooled reactor, the gas-cooled graphite-moderated reactor and the organic-liquid-moderated reactor. The pressurized-water reactor has been adopted for nearly all U.S. Naval units and by the U.S.S.R. for their icebreaker, but capital costs are high. On present information the boiling-water reactor seems likely to have appreciably lower capital costs than the pressurized-water reactor, and with substantial development it seems not impossible that capital costs of this system might approach those of the conventional propulsion systems. Fuel costs for nuclear propulsion systems depend on the cost of enriched fuel and on the cost of fabrication of fuel elements, which are at present very high. To achieve fuel costs equal to oil-fuel costs would require the use of low cost enrichment. Under these conditions and if capital charges can be brought into approximate parity, nuclear propulsion would have a chance of being competitive. This time seems, however, to be some distance away. Nevertheless it may be desirable to gain practical experience in this field so that the future role of nuclear propulsion can properly be judged.

DOI: 10.3233/ISP-1958-55103

Journal: International Shipbuilding Progress, vol. 5, no. 51, pp. 515-521, 1958