The July issue focuses on nuclear ship propulsion. It includes a rare picture of the N.S. Savannah, a discussion of the Japanese nuclear research ship the Mutsu, and comments from eminent mariners regarding nuclear ship propulsion.
(Post was originally published on July 1, 1995. It was updated on April 2, 2011 to include information and videos that were not available in when it was first written. The title has also been revised to open up a new discussion – was the NS Savannah a failure or a successful demonstration of a…
U. S. House votes against Yucca Mountain (May 18, 1995) The House of Representatives voted to stop funding the permanent spent fuel repository currently planned for Yucca Mountain, Nevada. The budget for the site would reach zero in 1997 according to the House plan. It left open the possibility of using the Nevada Test site…
The following is a sampling of comments on nuclear merchant ships from before 1973. Here are the observations of retired ship captain Alan Villiers, the National Geographic observer during the N.S. Savannah’s sea trials in 1962, “I stood on the Savannah‘s swept-back superstructure as she moved out into the Atlantic. She slipped along at an…
The Japanese nuclear ship Mutsu is designed not for show, but for research. She is currently being used by the Japan Atomic Energy Research Institute (JAERI) as a test bed to validate computer models of the behavior of pressurized water reactors in an ocean environment. The Mutsu has a 10,000 shaft horsepower nuclear engine. The…
Many observers deny that the success of nuclear propulsion for warships has any relationship to the possibility of success in a commercial endeavor. They claim that the costs are far too high, that merchant ships do not obtain much benefit from high speed endurance, or that the public will not accept nuclear powered shipping. There,…
I spent 12 years in the U.S. Navy learning how to operate nuclear heated engines at sea. The most challenging and rewarding job during those years was serving as the Engineer Officer (what surface ships would call the Chief Engineer Officer) of the USS Von Steuben, SSBN 632 (GOLD). I have also spent several years…