Thanks indy

Nuclear submarine and surface warship reactors are only sufficient to run the sub/warship - and being built for war this probably increases reactor development + production costs by a factor of 10 over a civilian reactor.

Civilian towed nuclear power reactor barges (this Russian one is just going into service http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Russian_floating_nuclear_power_station ) need very little power for own use - leaving a rather small 300 MW capacity for a small (say 200,000 person Russian example) city. Maybe one needs 4 very large land based power reactors = 10,000 MW (ie. 10 GW) for Sydney or Melbourne (allowing for 35 years of projected city growth)?

ALSO for floating reactors environmental (tsunamis and especially storms/king tides) and human threats (terrorism, piracy, insider sabotage or safety mistakes, faulty designs, violent protests, large aircraft hits, etc) are much higher than for land nuclear power reactors. Safety barriers/perimeters are harder to construct for floating compared to land based.

Threats to any type of power reactor are vastly higher than threats to coal, gas or renewable power stations.

Cheers

Pete

plantagenet,
My only claim to fame in anything nuclear is that I once asked the #1 bloke in Australia if perhaps nuclear waste could be burnt by dropping small capsules into a live volcano. I was enlightened that this would make the lava radioactive !
So, if we can't rid ourselves of the waste than isn't the whole show a waste ?
I still think it would be worthwhile studying the viability of dumping other toxic waste into live volcanoes.
Otherwise, the only other alternative is population ceilings in order to stop environmental disaster after disaster.

Hi indy

Well nuclear weapon countries like India argue nuclear waste can be "disposed of" in fast breeder reactors.

Unfortunately this is hugely expensive, even by nuclear standards.

It only makes financial sense if one has a nuclear weapons program to cross subsidise it.

Cheers

nuclear waste can be "disposed of" in fast breeder reactors.
plantagenet,
What is the emission of such procedures in comparison to alternative power ?

I don't know indy

Check this http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Breeder_reactor out.

Cheers

It only makes financial sense if one has a nuclear weapons program to cross subsidise it.
plantagenet,
Isn't it amazing how there's economic viability in constructing methods for destruction but not in construction of methods to prevent destruction ?