Svante

@db0 @pedroapero We already have nuclear batteries. What do you think powers Voyager 1 and 2?

(Here is an unofficial account of the latter: https://techhub.social/@NSFVoyager2)

@Emil Funny thing, the onboard reactor probably produces more power than the gas it carries could.

But anyway, yes, again, nuclear propulsion for ships is quite obviously a very good match.

@Emil The reactor wouldn’t be filled, right? And not under pressure? It would just be a big lump of metal?

@KnitWit @Emil Oh wait, you mean transporting reactor parts per ship? If they are new, they’re not even hazardous.

And nuclear fuel gets shipped all the time. If it’s new, it’s not a problem—very low activity, and water is a good shield—and spent fuel is just kept on site for decades.

@Emil Great, but the AP1000 isn’t the only Generation III+ reactor currently in operation, there is also at least the EPR.

@KnitWit @Emil I guess you’re not alone, sadly.

However…

A nuclear powered ship probably wouldn’t be under ship regulation and supervision, but under nuclear regulation and supervision. Nuclear supervision is much easier to do and harder to circumvent than that of oil. Compliance would be enforced at ports. A ship that cannot dock is useless.

Also, the worst case with a nuclear powered ship is less bad than normal operation of an oil powered ship, and sufficiently improbable.

@tomtrottel @Emil @Tylerdurdon

Well, there we are at the divide between facts and opinion, and that between a civil discussion and ad hominem attacks.

Fact: nobody was ever harmed by spent nuclear fuel. Really. Look it up wherever you like.

Fact: that is not by chance, but by engineering.

Fact: the total amount of all the world’s spent nuclear fuel ever, in the shape of a cube, would have a side length of about 35 m (before recycling).

Fact: I have no money invested in nuclear energy.

@tomtrottel @Emil @Tylerdurdon No, it is a classification.

It’s like saying »human feces is a huge problem« — well, yes, but that’s why we have toilets and sewage plants and so on — it’s solved.

As is nuclear waste.

@Brownboy13 @Emil Not perfect, but definitely better in every way than oil.

@Emil You know, in a sane world, moving a handful of effectively harmless concrete blocks around wouldn’t be newsworthy.

But even in our world, I think that the message should focus more on how little that actually is, how it is all there is, and how obviously it can be successfully done.

Leave some burns on fear-mongers while you’re at it.