this post was submitted on 17 Sep 2023
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Would this be a viable option for cruise or cargo ships as well?
The only real green option for oceangoing cargo ships at the moment would be nuclear plants. Since small nuclear plants generally require highly enriched uranium suitable to making bombs, I don't foresee it being an option, however.
Thorium Molten Salt reactor can't be used for weapons because it's no fissable so it can't have a chain reaction that creates explosions
https://ulstein.com/news/ulstein-thor-zero-emission-concept
Yeah, I wouldn't consider the thorium fuel cycle as part of our current tech. India's going to be the first to start thorium breeding at scale which they haven't gotten close to doing to date. That said, Thorium fuel absolutely can produce nuclear weapons in a breeder reactor design, it's just more difficult because you have to reprocess the fuel for U233 which is what Thorium is bred into.
There are lower enrichment targets you could theoretically use for a small uranium reactor depending on your moderator. It's just easier to use highly enriched uranium, or maybe some sort of MOX fuel.