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At first glance, the N.S. Savannah looked like an ordinary cruise ship.
With a pool for taking a dip, a dining room, and a lounge that doubled as a movie theatre.
But there’s one thing that set this ship apart from any other.
Inside this unmarked space, just a few meters from the passenger staterooms was a nuclear reactor.
Something unheard of on a passenger-carrying ship before or since.
And it meant the N.S. Savannah could do incredible things.
Like circle the earth for years without ever stopping.
In the 1960’s, nuclear power was viewed as a revolutionary, near limitless source of energy.
But what was less certain, was whether putting a nuclear reactor aboard a civilian ship was
really a good idea.
As one of the first ships powered by a nuclear reactor, N.S.
Savannah was going to prove that nuclear power was a safe, clean and near limitless source
of energy that could revolutionize ships.
Because to make a one trip around the earth, a typical ship will burn through more than
twenty thousand barrels of bunker oil.
All the while, billowing toxic smoke into the atmosphere.
The N.S. Savannah was designed to make that same trip without burning anything at all.
Because it could circle the earth using just a few pounds of a new kind of fuel called uranium.
Replacing an oil burning engine with a small nuclear reactor promised to make ships of
the future more economical, faster and reliable.
It would also eliminate the need for large fuel tanks, freeing up more room for cargo
and passengers.
Nuclear-powered ships could also travel for years on end before needing to refuel, and
at much higher speeds.
Opening up new trade routes that could reshape maritime trade.
But despite all the promise of nuclear power, the world had good reason to be skeptical.
In the 1950s, nuclear really only meant one thing.
Its enormous destructive potential and the hidden dangers of radiation were widely feared.
Nuclear weapons had been around for nearly a decade, but the peaceful use of nuclear
energy was still a new concept.
So in 1953, U.S. President Eisenhour launched the Atoms for Peace program.
In an effort to win over hearts and minds, research, funding and equipment would be sent
throughout the world to advance the peaceful use of nuclear energy. And the N.S.
Savannah would be built as a floating example of what an atomic-powered future could offer.
As the first of its kind, the ship would carry both passengers and cargo at the same time.
Demonstrating that nuclear power could be safe and viable for all kinds of uses out at sea.
The N.S. Savannah was designed to look like the ship of the future.
From the teardrop shaped superstructure to the streamlined cargo cranes, everything about
this ship was designed to stand out.
But what really set it apart was the powerplant.
At the heart of Savannah was a 74 megawatt Pressurized Water Reactor.
Its role was to generate heat, creating steam to drive the ship’s turbines.
The reactor was a complex piece of machinery, but it worked on a relatively simple principle.
Inside, uranium fuel elements are bombarded with neutrons.
In a process called nuclear fission,the neutrons split apart uranium atoms, releasing energy
in the form of radiation and heat.
As the uranium atoms split, they release additional neutrons which collide with other atoms, creating
a chain reaction.
It’s a carefully controlled process that releases an enormous amount of energy.
But it also produces harmful radiation.
So, safety was at the forefront of every aspect of Savannah’s design.
To keep passengers and crew safe, mere meters from the reactor, engineers built in layers
of protection.
The reactor was surrounded by a primary radiation shield, a thick steel containment vessel and
a 500 ton biological shield.
All of which were designed to stop stray neutrons and radioactive material from escaping.
Radiation exposure to passengers and crew would be kept well within safe limits.
On most parts of the ship, it would be indistinguishable from natural background radiation.
But engineers also had to account for the fact that ships that face rough weather, get
into accidents, and in the worst case, sink.
To counter severe weather, Savannah featured one of the first ship stabilization systems,
using hydraulically-actuated fins to counter rolling motions.
The ship also featured a reinforced hull and energy absorbing structures to protect against
collision with another ship.
And in the unlikely event that Savannah were to sink, the reactor was designed to automatically
shut down and one-way valves would flood the containment vessel with seawater, preventing
radioactive material from escaping.
Engineers had thought of every possible disaster scenario and Savannah’s builder’s boldly
claimed that their ship was one of the safest ever built.
All that was left, was to convince the world.
Though it had taken six years to develop and build, Savannah surprised even its designers.
The reactor produced more power than anticipated.
The ship was designed to top out at 20 knots, but could easily surge along at 24.
Among the grimy, soot covered merchant ships of the era, Savannah was undeniably striking.
In May of 1964, Savannah set sail on an ambitious world tour to demonstrate the merits of nuclear
power.
Over the course of a year, it made visits to U.S. cities along the eastern seaboard
and to over a dozen European ports, crossing the Atlantic several times in process.
The ship traveled nearly 150,000 kilometers, using only 35 pounds of uranium.
Each time Savannah pulled into a new port, huge crowds formed to greet it.
In the first year alone, 1.4 million people lined up to tour the ship.
Savannah’s world tour had gone fantastically well, generating enormous public interest
and plenty of positive press
Savannah’s commercial operator was so happy with the ship’s performance, they urged
congress to fund another four nuclear ships based on Savannah's design.
And back in the United States, additional crews were being trained in anticipation of
serving aboard future nuclear ships.
If nuclear propulsion really was the future, momentum seemed to be building.
Savannah had made nuclear propulsion look easy, as the ship cruised effortly from port
to port.
But hidden behind the sleek lines and gleaming white paint stood a harsh reality.
There was nothing straightforward about operating a nuclear ship.
Before Savannah could pull into a port, it needed special permission.
And the request had to be made months in advance.
And Ports often refused over safety concerns.
So behind the scenes, Savannah's representatives would have to fly out well in advance to begin
negotiating agreements.
Covering everything from how to respond if the ship were to cause a nuclear accident,
to who would be liable.
Gut-level scepticism about floating nuclear reactors wasn’t going to disappear overnight.
And to make matters worse, Savannah’s design wasn’t very practical.
The unusual half-passenger half-cargo configuration meant the ship wasn't good at carrying either.
The passenger accommodations took up a lot of space, while the cargo holds were too small.
And with so much emphasis having been placed on an eye-catching design, the ship's sleek
lines made cargo handling difficult.
Savannah also needed a highly-trained crew about a third larger than on a conventional
ship.
For a ship built to prove that nuclear power could be commercially viable, Savannah seemed
to do the opposite.
Even as the ship’s operator publicly boasted about Savannah's performance, their operating
costs were heavily subsidized, consuming millions each year in taxpayer money.
But in one very important way, the Savannah could still be considered a success.
Because It helped inspire other countries to build their own nuclear powered ships.
In 1964, West Germany launched the NS Otto Hahn.
A nuclear powered ore carrying freighter.
It was celebrated as Germany's ship of the future.
And like Savannah, the prototype ship was supposed to prove the viability of nuclear
propulsion.
But it didn't generate quite the same fanfare as Savannah and would face growing opposition.
Many countries denied Otto Hahn permission to enter their ports and it was outright banned
from sailing through the Suez and Panama canals.
A third, Japanese Nuclear Ship would do much worse.
The NS Mutsu was supposed to pave the way for a whole fleet of high-speed nuclear freighters.
Instead, the ship would only spur anti-nuclear sentiment.
During an initial test run in 1974, crews detected a small radiation leak caused by
faulty shielding.
The incident made national headlines.
But the media misreported the issue, claiming that the ship was leaking radioactive material.
The public was so outraged, a flotilla of fishing boats blocked Mutsu from returning
to its home port for nearly two months.
Up against enormous public opposition, the Mutsu never stood a chance, and an embarrassed
Japanese government abandoned their plans for further nuclear ships.
A fourth, nuclear cargo ship built by the Soviet Union in the 1980s also met opposition.
In the shadow of the Chernobyl disaster, public protests led to the ship being barred from
entering major ports in the Soviet Far East and harbor workers, fearing radiation exposure,
refused to unload cargo from the ship.
Nuclear energy never stopped being a divisive issue.But civilian nuclear ships would also
have to contend with other headwinds.
Although they promised to be cheaper to operate, they were more expensive to build.
There was also a lack of supporting infrastructure and unanswered questions about liability if
something were to go wrong.
While a technical success, Savannah’s design meant it could never be profitable, and lasted
just 5 years in commercial operation.
In 1971, the reactor was defueled and made inoperable.
Otto Hahn carried cargo for 9 years, but it’s reactor was eventually removed and replaced
with a conventional diesel engine.
Mutsu never carried cargo, and after having traveled just 82 thousand kilometres, its
reactor was also swapped for a diesel engine.
Along with a handful of nuclear icebreakers, Russia still occasionally operates the only
remaining nuclear cargo ship, mostly carrying military cargo in the far north of the country.
Today, more than 90,000 thousand merchant ships operate on the world’s oceans and
the majority burn low grade bunker oil.
The most polluting oil available.
One large cargo ship can put out as much hazardous sulfur dioxide as fifty million cars.
And while the public remains focused on the potential dangers of nuclear power, shipping
related emissions have led to four hundred thousand premature deaths each year from lung
cancer and cardiovascular disease
If just a dozen large cargo ships were powered by nuclear reactors, the reduction in global
emissions would be considerable.
And they would join the hundreds of nuclear-powered vessels that have been operated safely by
the U.S military over the past 50 years.
Today’s nuclear technology is safer and more economical than it was sixty years ago
when Savannah first set sail.
But the development of nuclear powered civilian ships remains frozen in time.
Because the biggest obstacles still remain, especially public perception.
My own perceptions changed after listening to Atomic Awakening on Audible.
A fascinating dive into the history of nuclear energy from early naïve optimism, to fear
and skepticism.
Mahaffey turns a complex subject into something that is easy to understand and highly entertaining.
And he makes a pretty compelling argument about how a second atomic age is on its way.
As fossil fuels become too expensive and the climate crisis becomes increasingly dire.
Atomic Awakening is just one of many thousands of Audible titles you can enjoy with an Audible
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