Short Wave - The Only Nuclear-Powered Passenger Ship EVER

Episode Date: July 10, 2023

In the Port of Baltimore, a ship is docked that hasn't transported passengers for more than 50 years. It's the NS Savannah and it's designated a National Historic Landmark. That's because it was the first—and only—nuclear-powered passenger ship to have ever been built. Science correspondent Geoff Brumfiel tells us about his recent tour of the ship and why it was a symbol of peace in it's time. To see more pictures of Geoff's visit to the NS Savannah, including one from 1962 when the ship was operational, click this link. Want to learn more about nuclear power? Email us at [e-mail]. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for sponsorship and to manage your podcast sponsorship preferences.NPR Privacy Policy

You're listening to Shortwave from NPR. Shortwavers, I'm here with science correspondent Jeff Brumfield, and today he's going to take us on a boat. Not just any boat, Gina. I recently had an opportunity to spend some quality time on the world's first and only nuclear-powered passenger ship, the NS Savannah. For this is a very special ship.

The first one of her kind, the only one of her kind today. That's from the Savannah Sea Trials in the early 1960s. It turns out she was the only one of her kind, period, because they never built another one. And we'll get into why that was later. Also, she hasn't sailed under nuclear power since the early 1970s. But the N.S. Savannah is still here in the port of Baltimore.

Oh my gosh. I totally want to go. You totally should. It's docked behind stacks of shipping containers. I made the trip to. see this ship because it is a fascinating window into a period when the atom was the future and anything seemed possible. Today on the show, we're going to talk about the time the U.S. government built a nuclear-powered ship for civilians, why they did it, how it worked, and what it can tell us about nuclear power today. I'm Regina Barber, and you're listening to Shortwave,

the science podcast from NPR. So, Jeff, first of all, how did you learn about this ship? Honestly, I think I saw it on this nerdy YouTube channel a year or two ago that I liked to watch. And I was instantly just totally taken with it. And then one day I got the idea to actually get in touch with the agency that owns it, the U.S. Department of Transportation's Maritime Authority. And they told me that the next weekend was actually National Maritime Day, and the boat would be open to the public. So I gathered up my family.

All right, kids, who's ready to go see a nuclear-powered cruise ship? including my very reluctant wife. I mean, I think it just might be a bit boring. I don't know. And off we went. Okay, so Jeff, I'm going to be honest. I had no idea this ship even existed. Tell me more about what motivated the government to even build it.

Yeah, yeah, absolutely. So it all goes back to the early 1950s, the beginning of the Cold War. This is the first full-scale test of a hydrogen device. The U.S. had just developed a. new powerful kind of nuclear weapon, a thermonuclear weapon. This kind of weapon uses nuclear fusion, like what powers the sun to make enormous explosions, far greater than the bomb dropped on Hiroshima. That's it, that's it.

So they tested their first device out in the Pacific. It was terrible, so powerful, it completely vaporized the island that the military set it up on. Oh, wow. And then within a year, the Russians tested a thermonuclear weapon of their own. Now, the president at the time was Dwight D. Eisenhower. Eisenhower was very well attuned to the potential for good that nuclear technology could do for humankind. That's Earhart Kohler, the senior technical advisor for Savannah with the Department of Transportation. But he was stuck in an arms race with the Soviet Union.

So Eisenhower decided to switch up the tone. He went to the United Nations and he delivered this speech If at one time the United States possessed what might have been called a monopoly of atomic power, that monopoly ceased to exist several years ago. This became known as the Adams for Peace speech. In it, Eisenhower laid out a number of different ways that the newly discovered power of the atom could be used for good. To apply atomic energy to the needs of agriculture, medicine, and other peaceful activities. a special purpose would be to provide abundant electrical energy in the power-starred areas of the world. So in this speech, did they actually mention building a nuclear-powered passenger ship?

No, no. Sadly, they did get there. The speech just sort of set the tone. The idea for the ship came later. This is before the jet age. Passenger ships were still the way that people got around the world. Merchant ships were still the way that so much of world trade flowed. So merchant ships were things that bound the world together. And Ike knew this.

So he knew that a nuclear-powered merchant ship, passenger ship would really make a statement. Construction on Savannah began in 1955. Its reactor turned on in 1961. And to be clear, this was always a demonstration ship. It could carry just 60 passengers. So we're talking like a smallish river cruise. I guess you enjoy a river cruise?

I would one day, one day. It also had cargo holds. The point was to show that nuclear power could be used on the open seas for all kinds of commercial ventures. Okay, so let's fast forward to today. So how is this ship doing? Well, that's the really cool thing. Savannah's interior is a time capsule from when it was completed in 1959. It's all this mid-century modern furniture, lots of teals and golds and oranges.

In the passenger lounge, they have a little. bar. Now I'm pretty sure that makes this the only nuclear reactor ever built with its own bar. It sounds very James Bond. But let's talk about the reactor. Yes, let's get down to the reactor. So it's in the forward section of the ship. You have to go way below deck. I won't do the handrails. Watch your footing, okay? The reactor was actually removed just last year. But you can still see the compartment that held it. Radiation safety officer Scott Gintner showed us around. So inside here you'll see the remnants of the 74 megawatt reactor. The whole purpose of this

power plant was to take out of them, split them in half. And when you split them on them in half, you get two things, you get radiation, you get heat. And by the way, my son at least was really getting into this tour. He said something about that being like a neutron shield or whatever it's called. So proud. What does that exactly mean or do? Now we're going to get technical. Did he answer? Oh, he answered. You don't want to know it. You don't want to know it came after. Now we're going to get technical. Okay. I love your son's questions. And actually, let's get a little technical for a minute. Powering the ship, this all works because of Einstein's famous equation. E equals MC squared. E is energy. M is mass. C is the speed of light, which is a really big number. So basically, when an atom splits, a little bit of its mass turns into an enormous amount of energy. And it's mass. energy. Right. I mean, and this is really mind-blowing. A cube of uranium, a little bigger than a Rubik's cube, could send the Savannah around the world more than a dozen times. It's the equivalent

of burning 28 million gallons of fuel. I mean, that is just incredible. Yeah, yeah. I can understand why Eisenhower wanted to show the world what nuclear power could do. So, I mean, what happened to the Savannah? Well, it did sail around the world. And Earhardt, Polar says it carried quite a few passengers. Anybody could buy a ticket, and the ship was very popular. It was every birth was booked. It was never empty. I would have totally bought a ticket.

But unfortunately, the window was pretty small. Right. It only carried passengers from 1962 to 1965. And we weren't alive. Yes, I think we both missed our chance by more than a decade. Okay. So I'm a little disappointed. Why did it stop?

Unfortunately, it came down. money because you had to have so many stewards in the crew to serve the passengers. If we stopped carrying passengers, you could reduce the stewards and reduce the cost of the program. The Savannah never made money. That's partially because it was this demonstration, half cargo carrier, half passenger vessel. It didn't do either job very well. But you know, Jeff, shipping today is almost as dirty as it was in 1959. It uses this really gross, heavy fuel oil. It causes respiratory illnesses contributes to 3% of global greenhouse gas emissions. Shipping companies are pledging to go green, so it's hard not to ask this question from the story. Could they go nuclear?

Yeah. Yeah, I mean, it did cross my mind as well. But the truth is probably civilian ships will not go nuclear. And there are a couple of reasons why. First is public resistance. Even back in the day, Savannah was denied entry to several countries, Australia, Japan, and New Zealand all shut, shut the ship out. And that was before Chernobyl and Fukushima and the nuclear plant under siege in Ukraine. You can imagine how tough it would be right now to get a nuclear-powered cruise ship into a port. The local governments would want to inspect it from top to bottom. There'd be all sorts of restrictions. But, you know, there's also technical reasons why this can't work. I can imagine, like, refueling the ships would cost a fortune. And they'd be dealing with their spent nuclear fuel. Where is that going to go? Exactly. Exactly. You need specialized facilities, places to store the radioactive ways, stuff like that. And there's one other thing that they didn't

know about back then that we know now. What's that? Well, decommissioning. Shutting down a nuclear system and taking it apart is slow and painful and expensive. The Savannah's reactor only came out last year, given that ships don't last, you know, 50, 60 years. And putting a nuclear reactor in a cargo ship, it just doesn't really make sense. So the Savannah was ultimately kind of a failure? Well, that's debatable. I mean, over a million people did visit the ship in its decade of operation. And Earhart says that's a big part of why the Savannah was built in the first place.

The primary reason was to demonstrate the peaceful uses of the technology as a counterpoint to the military uses of the technology, to kind of take the edge. off the Cold War. And, you know, taking a step back, other technologies promoted by Adams for Peace, Eisenhower's program, they did succeed. Nuclear medicine is the big one. We use it for all kinds of, you know, cancer treatments and medical imaging today. And there's also use it in agriculture, sterilizing food, for example. And while nuclear ships aren't a thing, nuclear power, even with all its problems,

may be needed to someday stop climate change. I think the jury is still out on that one. But it's undeniable. It can produce a lot of juice without making any CO2. Right. Well, Jeff, thank you so much for taking us on this trip on the NS Savannah. Oh, it was fun. Thank you. This episode was produced by Burley McCoy and edited by Omina Khan and our managing producer Rebecca Ramirez. Jeff was responsible for the facts. Beth Donovan is our senior director of programming and Anya Grunman is our senior vice president of programming.

I'm Regina Barber. And I'm Jeff Brumfield. Thank you for listening to Shortwave from NPR. By the way, after the trip, what did your wife think? Did she change her mind? Yeah, she liked it. Yeah, it was fun. But, I mean, look, I took her to a decommissioned nuclear missile silo on her honeymoon,

so she's kind of managed her expectations by now. Oh, no. Let's hope she gets to pick the next family trip.