China’s Nuclear-Powered Containership: A Fluke Or The Future Of Shipping?::Since China State Shipbuilding Corporation (CSSC) unveiled its KUN-24AP containership at the Marintec China Expo in Shanghai in early December of 2023, the internet has been abuzz about it. Not jus…

    • bogdugg@sh.itjust.works
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      24
      arrow-down
      3
      ·
      1 year ago

      Supposedly, a meltdown at sea is pretty low risk because you have the perfect heatsink literally everywhere around you, and its a molten salt design, which I think(?) (source: my ass) means that the fuel would at worst leak into the sea and immediately solidify back into some inert state.

      • lovesickoyster@lemmy.world
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        26
        ·
        edit-2
        1 year ago

        and its a molten salt design, which I think(?) (source: my ass) means that the fuel would at worst leak into the sea and immediately solidify back into some inert state.

        tmsr design has a freeze plug, a part of fuel that has to actively be kept below freezing temperature and if something goes wrong it melts and the fuel is dumped into a separate container where the reactivity drops to zero. It never leaves the system.

      • TheGrandNagus@lemmy.world
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        10
        ·
        1 year ago

        Well yeah but most accidents at sea actually happen fairly close to where there are people. At ports/canals as opposed to just in the middle of nowhere.