How many ships in port charging at a time? Honestly sounds like a good place to stay a few of those micro reactors lockmart claims to have

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rgmerk 4 days ago | parent | next [-]

The Port of Los Angeles is one of the largest ports in the USA, and has about 1,800 ship arrivals annually.

If they were all electric, all of this size, and required a full charge on arrival, you’re talking about (very roughly) 1 GW continuous power requirement for charging the ships. That’s a lot; no bones about it, but it’s not unprecedented - aluminium smelters and data centers are similarly hungry for power.

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anticodon 3 days ago | parent | prev | next [-]

Wouldn't it be much easier than to put micro reactors on a ship directly? Like on Russian icebreakers that can function on one load of fuel for 3 or 5 years, don't remember exactly but at least 3 years for sure.

	▲	rswail 3 days ago \| parent [-]
		Containers in general as well as palletization dramatically improved the economics and port efficiency around the world. Using containerized energy that can be offloaded and charged and swapped at ports is much more efficient way to spread the cost and infrastructure and safety around the world. There are many ports where you really don't want any form of radiation/nuclear materials available.

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baq 3 days ago | parent | prev [-]

If you have one ship to charge, maybe. Ten is in the standard nuclear power plant territory which is politically impossible to build outside of China.

	▲	rgmerk 3 days ago \| parent \| next [-]
		You’re not going to build a nuclear reactor (other than military ones) anywhere near a major port. You power this the same way you power aluminum smelters - you have a big honking grid connection and build the generation capacity in places with more room.
	▲	speedgoose 3 days ago \| parent \| prev [-]
		France plans to build 6 more reactors in existing power plants.