It says that the power output is about the same as the US Navy’s S6W reactor at about 200 megawatts.
I did some googling and it seems that the most powerful diesel engines, which are most common for commercial shipping, land at around 80 MW. So if it’s more practical to build and use thorium reactors on commercial ships (not just the most advanced Navy ships) the I think it’s got to change the game at least economically right? Not just speed, but other factors like eliminated need to refuel at ports (which can take days, but maybe that happens during downtime anyway). For military application that’s a key benefit too.
Yeah the thing I was thinking here was like, if you increase speed you also increase overall efficiency of movement. 2 days faster shipping across an entire fleet of ships is a massive increase in the total amount you ship if something is usually a 20 day journey.
If you’re running a nuclear reactor to power the ship can you not also run considerably more propulsion than traditional power would allow?
It says that the power output is about the same as the US Navy’s S6W reactor at about 200 megawatts.
I did some googling and it seems that the most powerful diesel engines, which are most common for commercial shipping, land at around 80 MW. So if it’s more practical to build and use thorium reactors on commercial ships (not just the most advanced Navy ships) the I think it’s got to change the game at least economically right? Not just speed, but other factors like eliminated need to refuel at ports (which can take days, but maybe that happens during downtime anyway). For military application that’s a key benefit too.
Yeah the thing I was thinking here was like, if you increase speed you also increase overall efficiency of movement. 2 days faster shipping across an entire fleet of ships is a massive increase in the total amount you ship if something is usually a 20 day journey.
Just pulling numbers out of the air obviously.
Also have to consider how much the parts can handle stress wise on if adding power