The Ship That Never Was,

it was going to be sleek, powerful, luxurious, fast,

and nuclear powered, but it never left the drawing board, this ship pictured above was designed in Great Britain to follow in the footsteps of the NS Savannah, so here is the story, fifty years ago the world's first nuclear-powered cargo-passenger ship sailed from the US to Europe on a publicity tour to persuade the world to embrace the atomic age, it didn't quite work out like that, the ship was one of the few ideas to spring directly from the imagination of a US president, in 1953, Dwight Eisenhower had made his famous Atoms for Peace speech, attempting to balance the growing fear of nuclear apocalypse with optimism about the possibility of civilian use of atomic energy and he wanted an atomic ship, a civilian one,

this is the NS Savannah in her glory days, she cost $50m and was launched 55 years ago this week, after 5 years of fitting out she was ready to go, it was to be an ambassador of sorts - the world's first nuclear-propelled merchant ship and a symbol of safety and faith in the fuel of the future, and is preserved at the Savannah Association which works to preserve and protect the decommissioned ship that now sits at a port in Baltimore, Maryland, 

despite the excitement, the Savannah failed in its diplomatic mission, the ambassadorial voyage ended a year later but Savannah had failed to persuade the world that nuclear-powered ships were the future, just three other nuclear merchant ships were built - the German oil transporter Otto Hahn; Japan's freighter Mutsu; and the Russian ice-breaking container vessel Sevmorput, like the Savannah, they are no longer in service, but all was not lost, unlike the commercial shipping industry, the military did embrace nuclear, of the estimated 700 nuclear-powered vessels which have seen service over the years, including the 200 currently at sea, the majority are military ships and submarines, dedicated Russian ice-breaking ships are the only civilian examples, so why no nuclear powered passenger ships?

costs, a ship with a nuclear reactor is always going to cost more, while the US's Nimitz-class aircraft carriers are all nuclear-powered, it was decided that the UK's new Queen Elizabeth super-carrier would use a combination of gas turbines - fuelled with kerosene - as well as diesel engines instead for cost reasons, but there is a plus side when it comes to the cost of a nuclear vessel, the initial price of a nuclear-powered ship would be considerably more, but because commercial uranium is cheaper than conventional fuels, the fuel cost for a nuclear ship is much less, says John Carlton, professor of marine engineering at City University, London, (pages 33 - 41 of his report), nuclear-powered vessels can go years without refuelling, covering great distances, the Savannah was capable of circling the planet 14 times at 20 knots without needing additional fuel,

and this is the bit the greenies and tree hugers will really like, nuclear power ships emit no CO2 and greenhouse gases, so will we see a repeat of this week 55 years ago when a nuclear powered passenger ship is launched and it then cruises the oceans? we will have to wait and see.