[techmati]

if we talk about cruise ships and large charter yachts together to stay on topic, one of the reasons why nuclear would be not recommended is that people are afraid of it. in the competitive market of cruise ships and charter yachts, why limit your potential market by excluding people who are afraid of nuclear.

regarding the technical aspects of running a nuclear power plant well i am sure it would be possible to find suitable ex navy personnel to technically manage and crew the vessel. we are already seeing unconventional power plants in yachts like diesel electric or combined diesel and gas turbine. therefore those yachts had to source and train suitable crew.

as mentioned earlier, the vessel would definitely be restricted from entering certain ports and certainly it would require huge effort to convince the authorities at each port the vessel wished to call that the vessel is safe. Certainly even if the vessel was permitted to arrive, it would get big publicity and of course the nuclear protesters would attend.

but one major aspect would be that it would be prohibitively expensive to insure the vessel. This is not for the hull insurance which is of course limited to the value of the vessel but for the P&I insurance which would cover the costs of compensating third parties in the case of a casualty, antipollution works, wreck removal etc.

nevertheless it is important to look at alternative sources of power for the yachts as we are faced with constantly increasing fuel cost which at some point will damage the motor yacht charter industry. Perhaps LNG will power the yachts of the future or perhaps did we already discover the perfect power many years ago.......of course....Sail