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The Return of Sail Power: Cargo Ships Are Turning Back to the Wind

193 points · 136 comments · gumby

  1. acidburnNSA · · focus · HN ↗
    59 different companies including mine responded to MARAD's recent RFI on nuclear powered merchant ships. Many people are realizing that wind, hydrogen, ammonia, etc are falling short for global scale shipping.

    <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.federalregister.gov&#x2F;documents&#x2F;2026&#x2F;05&#x2F;07&#x2F;2026-09070&#x2F;request-for-information-development-of-a-commercially-viable-system-centric-small-modular-reactor" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.federalregister.gov&#x2F;documents&#x2F;2026&#x2F;05&#x2F;07&#x2F;2026-09...

    1. bgnn · · focus · HN ↗
      TBH this makes the most sense. Nuclear for large scale shipping + battery electric or hydrogen for smaller distances, rivers etc.
      1. ok_dad · · focus · HN ↗
        Nuclear power is expensive enough on land. At sea it’ll never compete with any other energy source. They’ll be pulling hydrocarbons from the air before they do nuclear ships in earnest. Yes I have heard of nuclear carriers and subs, the only two useful applications of nuclear power at sea.
        1. rozab · · focus · HN ↗
          Russia has been using nuclear icebreakers for civilian purposes since the 50s, and has also used nuclear propulsion for other vessel types, as has the US.

          <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;en.wikipedia.org&#x2F;wiki&#x2F;Nuclear-powered_icebreaker" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;en.wikipedia.org&#x2F;wiki&#x2F;Nuclear-powered_icebreaker

          1. ok_dad · · focus · HN ↗
            Thanks, I am pretty knowledgeable about nuclear ships and they’re only used in specific situations because they don’t care about cost for those situations. It’s too expensive for cargo and there is no training pipeline for civilian naval reactors so this idea is dead on arrival.

            I’m pro nuclear tech but the economics and systems will not support nuclear for ships right now. We are barely making headway into nuclear on land these days, let’s focus on that for now.

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