Floating Nuclear Plants to Improve Economics, Safety, Siting, and Proliferation Resistance

Abstract

Floating nuclear plants have been around for decades, first powering nuclear submarines and aircraft carriers. The first “commercial” application was in 1967 when a reactor was placed in a converted liberty ship in 1967 to provide power to the Panama Canal. Today many countries are developing commercial nuclear plants to provide power to remote areas as well as grid power for nations that may not have the technical infrastructure to support nuclear energy. Many designs are being developed from subsurface submarines without propulsion to floating barges to offshore floating platforms. These concepts attempt to address many issues some of which are social, such as public acceptance while others are more economic, in that it is expected that factory fabrication in a shipyard using modularity principles can lower overall cost and improve quality. Concerns about safety, security and non-proliferation aspects of floating nuclear plants are addressed showing numerous improvements over land based nuclear plants.