Nuclear Power for Cruise Ships

Norwegian shipbuilder Ulstein this week unveiled a new concept for a cruise vessel that would run electricity generated at sea using a nuclear reactor.

The twist is that the reactor wouldn’t be located on the cruise ship itself, but on a separate service vessel. The service vessel would recharge electric batteries on the cruise ship every few days.

Ulstein’s idea is that one service vessel with a small nuclear reactor could serve as a floating power station for up to four small, all-electric expedition ships sailing in a region such as Antarctica.

As Ulstein conceives it, the service ship would feature a rarely built type of nuclear reactor that uses a thorium molten salt mixture. Such reactors are considered safer than conventional nuclear reactors because they operate with fuel in a molten state. In the event of an emergency, the fuel would drain into a containment vessel and solidify, preventing the sort of uncontrolled nuclear meltdown that can happen with a more traditional uranium-fueled reactor.

Muren noted that thorium has relatively low radioactivity and produces radioactive waste that is easier to manage than the radioactive waste from more traditional uranium reactors.

“Thorium is a much nicer substance, and it produces very little waste compared to uranium [used in other reactors],” she said. “With uranium, you have a lot of waste that you have to take care of for … thousands of years. For thorium, it is a couple of hundred years.”