Maybe nuclear, material, and other engineering just wasn’t as advanced in the 50s?
They had a 2MW reactor designed to run 20 years that cracked and failed after 10 and went through three cores in that time.
Meanwhile, these days the US hasn’t built a non-nuclear submarine or large aircraft carrier in almost 50 years, and globally we have all sorts of nuclear ships including all sorts of combat ships as well as things like ice breakers. And they’re not all running around irradiating everything wherever they go.
The current French reactor produces 50MW and only needs refueling every 30 years.
Seems like it might be worth another go at this point.
They had a 2MW reactor designed to run 20 years that cracked and failed after 10 and went through three cores in that time.
Meanwhile, these days the US hasn’t built a non-nuclear submarine or large aircraft carrier in almost 50 years, and globally we have all sorts of nuclear ships including all sorts of combat ships as well as things like ice breakers. And they’re not all running around irradiating everything wherever they go.
The current French reactor produces 50MW and only needs refueling every 30 years.
Seems like it might be worth another go at this point.