this post was submitted on 06 Nov 2025
88 points (100.0% liked)
technology
24091 readers
602 users here now
On the road to fully automated luxury gay space communism.
Spreading Linux propaganda since 2020
- Ways to run Microsoft/Adobe and more on Linux
- The Ultimate FOSS Guide For Android
- Great libre software on Windows
- Hey you, the lib still using Chrome. Read this post!
Rules:
- 1. Obviously abide by the sitewide code of conduct. Bigotry will be met with an immediate ban
- 2. This community is about technology. Offtopic is permitted as long as it is kept in the comment sections
- 3. Although this is not /c/libre, FOSS related posting is tolerated, and even welcome in the case of effort posts
- 4. We believe technology should be liberating. As such, avoid promoting proprietary and/or bourgeois technology
- 5. Explanatory posts to correct the potential mistakes a comrade made in a post of their own are allowed, as long as they remain respectful
- 6. No crypto (Bitcoin, NFT, etc.) speculation, unless it is purely informative and not too cringe
- 7. Absolutely no tech bro shit. If you have a good opinion of Silicon Valley billionaires please manifest yourself so we can ban you.
founded 5 years ago
MODERATORS
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
view the rest of the comments
If you're running a nuclear reactor to power the ship can you not also run considerably more propulsion than traditional power would allow?
It says that the power output is about the same as the US Navy’s S6W reactor at about 200 megawatts.
I did some googling and it seems that the most powerful diesel engines, which are most common for commercial shipping, land at around 80 MW. So if it’s more practical to build and use thorium reactors on commercial ships (not just the most advanced Navy ships) the I think it’s got to change the game at least economically right? Not just speed, but other factors like eliminated need to refuel at ports (which can take days, but maybe that happens during downtime anyway). For military application that’s a key benefit too.
Yeah the thing I was thinking here was like, if you increase speed you also increase overall efficiency of movement. 2 days faster shipping across an entire fleet of ships is a massive increase in the total amount you ship if something is usually a 20 day journey.
Just pulling numbers out of the air obviously.
Also have to consider how much the parts can handle stress wise on if adding power