TIL about powerships, special purpose ships on which a power plant is installed to serve as a power generation resource until a local power plant is built or until high demand in power supply is over
TIL about powerships, special purpose ships on which a power plant is installed to serve as a power generation resource until a local power plant is built or until high demand in power supply is over
This has been done before,in the 1920s the USS Lexington, an electromotive aircraft carrier, was hooked up to Seattle to provide power when a hydro plant went dry in a drought.
Russia and China have NUCLEAR ones in service
Great! There’s plenty of precedent for floating nuclear reactors. Just look at any modern aircraft carrier or navy submarine. The US Navy operates hundreds of nuclear reactors at sea with a perfect safety record.
If it has a meltdown and you sink it it would be pretty safe as long as you're not right in the coast right? Water blocks radiation and forces from an explosion pretty well
There's gotta be a way for the navy to commercialize reactor ships and use them for freight. Even if it means a crew of navy engineers on each freighter. I'd take the remote possibility of a nuclear incident in the middle of the Pacific, or even a dirty-bomb or two. Either one is going to cause less destruction than bunker fuel.
Absolutely! Nuclear energy is one of the cleanest options, and it's a superior option for a floating power station.
I heard this can almost power a selfhosted AI
One step closer to the AI spacecraft and habitats in Iain M. Bank's Culture novels.
One more step, only a googolplex to go.
I too have been known to get the powerships after a few nights of blackouts.
That’s interesting! There also exists a similar thing for 18 wheelers
Old diesel locomotives have been repurposed similarly, since they're literally a 3000hp generator and fuel tank on wheels.
Oh great, this terrible idea is actually going into works
It's often a disaster recovery type of thing.
That makes sense. In an earlier climate conference some oil billionaires had a similar idea, but instead to create artificial scarcity and drive energy prices up by moving the power plant to the highest bidder
Wait until you hear about Floating nuclear power plants.
I remember watching a youtube video about what i think was a large land train built by Russia that was a portable nuclear power station.
That is awesome
This was an excellent read, thank you for linking that Wikipedia article. I never knew about these and they are cool af