NUCLEAR POWER AND THE MERCHANT MARINE CRISIS
Authors: THAMM TOM B. 
Published: March 2009

The dominant purpose of this paper is a realistic examination of the economic feasibility of merchant ship nuclear power and its relevance to the present state of crisis in the merchant marine of the United States.

The paper reviews the origins and current status of U.S. maritime law, its system of direct and indirect subsidies which tries to maintain U.S. shipping interest on a competitive basis with foreign nations, and the results of this system as evidenced by the post‐war decline and present state of our merchant fleet. It underscores the principal causes for our maritime status as high costs of construction and operation under the U.S. flag, labor strife, antiquated legislation and the failure to agree on a course of remedial action. It is suggested that the merchant marine of the United States which today carries only 7% of our total import and export trade, be revitalized in the interest of national necessity.

An examination of the current state of world merchant ship nuclear power is conducted and it is concluded that leadership in maritime nuclear propulsion has passed into the hands of other nations. A representative sample of the forces that control the future of merchant ship nuclear power in the United States is presented. This sample indicates that the positions and attitudes of these forces are in conflict and that the result is complete stagnation of a merchant ship reactors program.

The paper then describes the construction and operation of a mathematical model of a hypothetical, but realistically configured contemporary merchantman in which all costs of construction and operation are contained. The model is operated under identical conditions in both a conventional and nuclear mode and the results of operations are economically compared.

A sentivity analysis of realistic variables is conducted to determine those operational factors that control the competitive environment between nuclear propulsion and oil fired ships. The results of operation and sensitivity analysis find that high power, long trade routes, short turnaround time and high reactor utilization are the requirements for competitive maritime nuclear power and that these requirements are not met in the ship under review.

A review of recent estimates and forecasts for the supply and demand of fossil fuels is conducted. As assessment of these forecasts indicates that the world bank of fossil energy is being rapidly depleted, particularly in the case of oil. The importance of these diminishing reserves to the transportation industry, with particular emphasis on ocean commerce is explored.

It concludes that there is no competitive basis for nuclear propulsion on contemporary merchant ships since the conditions for economic parity with conventional installations cannot be realistically met. A review of current changes in the maritime industry is made, and it is suggested that a new concept in total transportation is emerging which sees the ship as a sub‐system rather than an economic entity. This review suggests that the requirements of this new maritime concept are moving in a direction that will meet the conditions for competitive merchant ship nuclear power.

A conditional merchant ship nuclear power program is recommended and described. The program calls for government support for a research and development program that will result in a packaged nuclear steam supply system for installation in a series of selected ships whose characteristics meet the conditions for competitive nuclear power. The basic conditions for government support are the acceptance of standardization of design to achieve the economies of volume and that shipowners demonstrate that a need exists for ships that meet the conditions for economic parity.