By: Jonesy - 7th October 2008 at 18:54
Depends in what sense you mean.
Podded propulsors driven by electric motors would not care where the electricity came from to turn the motors. So from that aspect whether it was a gas turbine prime mover turning the alternator set or a steam turbine fed off a nuclear reactor would make little difference.
The issue is whether, by changing the propulsion fit, you change the displacement and trim of the vessel. If adding a reactor, shielding, miles of pipework, steam turbine/alternator sets etc adds 500 tons to the displacement then your propulsors may not e powerful enough to maintain the previously achieveable performance range etc.
So basically the answer, I’d say, is yes if you have a vessel with sufficient displacement to start with and then….carefully!
Sign In
October 7, 2008 at 6:01 pm