Rod Adams at Atomic Insights Blog posted this video of a massive nuclear ship, the 50 Years Since Victory. This icebreaker pushes through frozen waters via two nuclear generators, giving the ship a 70,000 horsepower kick. What’s amazing is a ship this large only requires one pound of uranium per day to operate. That’s some serious energy density.
Here is Adams’ take:
A friend just shared a link to this video of a Russian nuclear powered ice breaker speeding to the North Pole at 16 knots, using 1 pound of uranium per day to drive a 25,000 tons ship through pack ice. Displays of power like this should help people understand just why nuclear energy is so darned interesting. It is a reliable source of controllable power that humans can use for accomplishing beneficial tasks that are simply not possible with weak and unreliable power sources.
