The Rickover memo as a Dunning-Kruger effect. https://whatisnuclear.com/news/2025-06-26-nuclear-dunning-kruger.html
| Website | https://whatisnuclear.com |
Nick Touran
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Ph.D. nuclear engineer / advanced reactor designer in Maryland who runs https://whatisnuclear.com. I'm in it to help with climate and energy issues. Grew up in Michigan.
Nuclear-powered, nuclear-armed supersonic ramjet cruise missiles, anyone? Here's a technical 1963 film summarizing component development and subsystem testing supporting just that from Project Pluto https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8qMuS5kaDBI
Nuclear-powered Ramjet Cruise Missile: LASV-N1 (Progress Report 1963)
I enjoyed listening to another amazing Decouple podcast episode with Prof Koroush Shirvan from MIT talking about nuclear fuel costs. This is a "must-listen" for all of us trying to make reactors really cheap.
Fuel for Thought
Deep diving energy-dense nuclear fuel
Anyone coming to the NRC's RIC conference next week? Registration is free and you can attend online or in person https://www.nrc.gov/public-involve/conference-symposia/ric/index.html
Behold: a 1958 film showing the Armour Research Reactor at the Illinois Institute of Tech. It was a fluid fueled aqueous homogeneous reactor (AHR) built by Atomics International.
Thanks to Brett Rampal and Veriten for sponsoring this digitization!
https://whatisnuclear.com/news/2025-03-06-armour-research-reactor-film-1958.html
Armour Research Reactor – A 1958 film about the first privately owned reactor dedicated to industrial research
The Armour Research Reactor was a small homogeneous-type nuclear reactor with uranyl sulfate fuel dissolved in water. It was installed at the Illinois Institute of Technology in Chicago. This film, recorded in February 1958 and digitized in 2025, shows the core construction, reactor controls, shield, and various applications of the reactor.
Practical Engineering by Robert Pool has lots of interesting things to say about the troubles of US nuclear power.
Wanting to find the "SpaceX of nuclear" is a common goal. But there are some important differences between nuclear enterprise and rockets. Ethan Chaleff explains: https://whatisnuclear.com/news/2025-02-25-a-nuclear-startup-will-probably-not-be-the-next-spacex.html
A nuclear startup will probably not be the next SpaceX – Guest post
For the last decade in nuclear, it’s been in vogue to make comparisons to SpaceX. It’s understandable why: In 2008, launch services were a stilted industry, funded almost entirely by governments and dominated by massive companies operating under cost-plus contracts. In short order, they were disrupted by an upstart, leading to radical price cuts and performance improvements. Who wouldn’t want to replicate that in the nuclear industry?
See inside the Nuclear Ship Savannah's reactor compartment! Filmed today by Fred Blonder https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DiQSek1DJK8
Inside the Nuclear Ship Savannah's Reactor Compartment
Each one could pull 5000 lbs of trash out of the ocean per day from moving screens over the inlets.
Sadly, by the time they got the license, power demand had flattened, and their customers backed out. The crane was sold to China. The canal is still there.
More here: https://whatisnuclear.com/offshore-nuclear-plants.html
Offshore nuclear power plants — That time we almost built 8 GW-scale floating reactors
In the 1970s, Westinghouse and Newport News formed a joint venture called Offshore Power Systems to mass produce floating nuclear power plants. Vast environmental and design studies were done, the facility was constructed, and 8 full-scale gigawatt-class PWRs were authorized for production.
In 1972, a JV between Westinghouse and Newport News was formed called Offshore Power Systems. They aimed to mass-manufacture large floating PWR nuclear plants in a gigafactory. They:
✅ Excavated a canal on Blount Island, Jacksonville, Fl
✅ Installed the world's largest gantry crane
✅ Submitted a full EIS for sites up and down the Atlantic coast
✅ Got an actual license from the Nuclear Regulatory Commission to manufacture the first 8 reactors(!)