Page 7: of Maritime Reporter Magazine (October 2026)
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real reason commercial nuclear propulsion failed at the The record speaks for itself, at worst the public does not time was the excessive cost of it all. (See my January 2025 care, at best they even like it. In the last decade or so there discussion of NR-1 on MarineLink.com – https://www. has been a massive shift in favor of nuclear power where marinelink.com/news/nuclear-submarine-nr-life-actual- (according to AI) the public supports nuclear power with ly-521328). a 60% or more majority and is even reaching 70%. That is
I also remember that at one time New Zealand would on land and after Fukushima! not allow Nuclear US Navy ships to enter its ports. That Does it really make sense to think the public now will was related to antiwar issues. I am sure that once the world worry more about nuclear power on water using inher- runs nuclear commercial ships, the Kiwis will be just as ently safer nuclear reactors? Let’s focus on what needs to be desperate to ship their kiwis on nuclear vessels as the rest done, instead of focusing on unsupported marginal issues. of the world. Let’s build some nuclear commercial vessels now, and
Meanwhile, the US Navy, the Russians, The British stop worrying about sailing off the edge of the world. And
Navy and the French Navy all operate nuclear vessels and most of all let’s not introduce edge of the world concerns where is that negative public perception? in policy and technical forums.
Last year the Nuclear Submarine New Jersey was com- missioned in New Jersey. A rare visit by a nuclear vessel. It
For every column I write MREN makes a small contribution was a party, and everybody came out to see it. Birdwatchers to an organization of my choice. For the foreseeable future I am selecting SL7Expo, an industry wide effort to took pictures of it when it passed the tip of Sandy Hook, develop a Smithsonian level exhibit center for commercial with happy comments as if they had sighted a roseate maritime. https://sl7expo.org/members/ spoonbill
