Abstract
Nuclear ship propulsion and isolated islands energy supply are unexplored markets for nuclear vendors. Carbon taxes and fuel regulations may make fossil fuels more expensive. Such markets pay more for energy because of organization and transport costs and use of small machines, which are less efficient than grid generators. The goal of this work is to find the measures the nuclear industry needs to take to get into new potential markets. This work shows the different actors and their interests and points the natural or physical constraints they face. Considering interests and constraints, this work named the most probable market niches where nuclear power may beat other power sources. After considering natural constraints, this paper analyses human-generated constraints and presents a way on how to mitigate or solve them. This study shows that nuclear industry needs to take technical, administrative, and political measures before nuclear power arrives to a wider market. This work is based on literature review and qualitative analysis and cannot point precise thresholds where nuclear power should be competitive. Future work will consist of statistical analysis to find precise thresholds to help in the decision-making process.
Highlights
Except for Russian icebreakers and containership, there is no merchant ships running on nuclear power
Greenhouse gases emission regulations may make the use of fossil fuels yet more expensive, as shipping is an important player on sulfur, carbon, and nitrogen oxides emissions [1]
Wind and solar power could be a choice if the average ship speed is about 10 knots and travel times may have variance
Summary
Except for Russian icebreakers and containership, there is no merchant ships running on nuclear power. Circa 95% of global commerce goes through shipping [2] and nowadays the supply chains are global, increases in tariffs due fuel costs (fuel is today the major cost driver) affect all economy sectors. This means new ship powering options need to enter in play. For baseload electricity in remote places and islands, wind and solar power become too expensive due the need of energy accumulation. Another disadvantage is the large surfaces required for renewables power sources. That means nuclear power seems to be a plausible solution to reduce greenhouse emissions due shipping because it has stable output and does not depend on the weather
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