A Study on the Nuclear Powered Vessels = A Study on the Nuclear Powered Vessels

다국어 초록 (Multilingual Abstract)

The concept of nuclear-powered merchant ships has been blooming in the naval architecture community for more than four decades now. But the recent developments in commercial shipping include bigger, faster and more powerful ships, where nuclear propulsion may prove an option worth considering. The development of advanced ship deigns along with the nuclear power opens an opportunity for high-speed maritime transportation that could create new markets and recover a fraction of the high value goods currently shipped only by air. Despite perceived hazards, inherently safe nuclear propulsion plants can be deigned for next generation merchant ships employing the newest technology. Combining an existing and well proven gas turbine plus heat exchangers with inherently safe nuclear technology for energy conversion promises a viable alternative propulsion solution for various tonnage typed vessels. This paper is an effort to reveal the advantageous position of nuclear propulsion over conventional propulsion methods for merchant vessels.