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The navy uses nuclear reactors for tactical reasons, not economic reasons. Nuclear-powered ships are significantly more expensive.



The US Navy builds many reactors for the price of this power plant.

A Virginia class submarine in 2023 costs $4.3 billion (that's for the whole submarine), it has a 210MW S9G reactor.

The Vogtle Unit 3 was $17 billion over budget, for a $30 billion total budget, for 1,100 MW.

$204MM / MW for the US Navy vs $273MM / MW for Georgia Power et. al.

This project makes nuclear submarines look like a bargain!

Sources:

* https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Virginia-class_submarine

* https://apnews.com/article/georgia-power-co-southern-climate...


Following the references from the Wikipedia article, I found that the S9G reactor is rated for 210 megawatts of thermal output. The AP1000 reactor that this article is about has a 3415 megawatt thermal output:

https://www.westinghousenuclear.com/energy-systems/ap1000-pw...

The naval reactor is more expensive per unit of output.




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