Page 149 - ΝΑΥΤΙΚΑ ΧΡΟΝΙΚΑ - SEPT 2025

the beginning all the fuel it will need
powered ship that does not need refuel-
throughout its life cycle and will be ling or incur fines is akin to the discovery
required to deliver the radioactive waste of the pendulum.
it produces for safekeeping. The initial However, the issue of radioactive waste
extremely high cost and the difficulties is systematically suppressed. Multi-page
of deactivation and decommissioning studies and analyses often fail to devote
are expected to be resolved with “leas- a single paragraph to the subject. The
ing” type financing models. No technol- communication management of the
ogy is adopted commercially unless it problem is limited to numerical estimates
is competitive and economically viable. of volume, as if volume is a measure of
It is expected that the most significant the risk. For example, no mention is made
advantage of nuclear power on ships will of the effects that a handful of radioactive
be the overall lower cost of acquisition waste would have if it were to be found
and operation during its lifetime. in a public space in a large city.
Nonetheless, radioactive waste will This “scientific approach”, which meas-
remain the major unresolved issue. ures radioactive waste by volume, is
Although nuclear propulsion does not equivalent to measuring electric current
emit pollutants during operation, it cre- with... a ruler.
ates high-intensity, long-lived radioac- No problem is solved if we ignore or
tive waste that requires safe storage for underestimate it. The questions of
hundreds or even thousands of years. where and how to dispose of nuclear
This timescale exceeds any historical waste remain technically unresolved
human experience with technology. and as politically charged as ever. In
Giants like Microsoft, Amazon, and the United States, for example, the only
Google are investing billions of dollars in long-term underground repository for
promoting and “decriminalising” nuclear nuclear waste has been put on hold
energy. Indeed, polls show growing pub- indefinitely. New research programmes
lic acceptance. have been funded to study the effects
In shipping, the promise of a nuclear- of underground nuclear waste disposal
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