She was a dream ship, not just a steam ship. But the dream turned bad.
The U.S. Maritime Administration (MARAD) has issued a notice seeking public comment on “disposition” of the NS Savannah, the nation’s first and only nuclear-powered merchant ship, a product of the Eisenhower administration’s 1955 commitment to its “Atoms for Peace” program, pivoting away from atoms for war in previous administrations and at the Atomic Energy Commission.
Eisenhower pushed for development of civilian nuclear shipping. The design of what would become the Savannah began in 1956. The ship, powered by a 74-MW, 50-foot-high, Babcock & Wilcox pressurized water reactor making steam for a 20,000-horsepower electric motor, went into service in 1962.
The NS (nuclear ship) Savannah was not designed to operate profitably, and never did. Its namesake was the SS (steam ship) Savannah, with both steam and wind propulsion, after its launch in 1819 became the first steam ship to cross the Atlantic (mostly under sail). She was also unprofitable.
The atomic-powered Savannah was a beautiful vessel, and extremely luxurious. Designed by George G. Sharp and built by The New York Shipbuilding Corporation at Camden, New Jersey, she was commissioned at launching by First Lady Mamie Eisenhower.
The ship was small by ocean-going standards, at 586-feet long, with a sleek, modern design that suggested the future. The Savannah was also designed to carry both humans and conventional cargo. It featured rich accommodations for 80 – including full dining, a bar, a dance floor, and a movie theater – and 8,500-ton cargo capacity.
While commissioned in 1959, it took another two-and-a-half years to install the reactor and perform tests. Then the ship moved by temporary oil power to Yorktown, Va., for reactor startup and testing. The ship made its maiden voyage for States Marine Lines (which went out of business in 1974) in August 1962 (by which time John F. Kennedy was president).
After good technical performance and a checkered economic history including high costs, labor strife, and an unwillingness on many potential ports of call to allow the floating nuclear plant to dock, the ship ended passenger service in 1965 and was taken out of service entirely in 1971.
In subsequent years, the Savannah moved to and from various U.S. ports, serving mostly as a museum. She was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1982 and designated a National Historic Landmark in 1991. Since 2008, the ship has been berthed at the Canton Marine Terminal in Baltimore, Md.
MARAD (originally part of the Commerce Department but now under the Department of Transportation) had never moved directly to decommission the ship. The decommissioning is a complex bureaucratic mission, as Nuclear Newswire noted. MARAD’s announcement calling for public comment points out that the decommissioning, whatever form it takes, involves collaboration “among MARAD, the NRC, the Advisory Council on Historic Preservation, and the Maryland State Historic Preservation Office.
MARAD says it hopes to preserve as much of the ship’s historic value as possible during the decommissioning process. The notice lays out five “dispositions” under consideration:
- Preservation under continued Federal ownership (with or without transfer of administrative responsibility from MARAD).
- Preservation under bare Federal ownership with predominant private control and responsibility (e.g., a Public-Private Partnership [P3] arrangement to be determined or lease/charter).
- Preservation by a non-Federal entity (donation).
- Destruction by domestic dismantlement (scrapping).
- Artificial reefing.
Why did the NS Savannah fail to usher in a world of nuclear-powered shipping, which had great promise and would look like a positive in today’s world, where reducing use of fossil fuels is a key policy objective?
The Historic Mysteries website offers one explanation: “The truth is that for all its visual appeal her design was compromised from the start. She could carry both passengers and cargo but this meant she did not excel as either a passenger or cargo ship, having limited space for either.
“Her radical design and the inherent dangers of her reactor meant that entry to major ports required months of paperwork, and she was regularly refused access to the docks and cities which would have made her a success.
“Put simply, foreign governments and the public were too squeamish to embrace nuclear ships until they had been proven safe beyond a doubt….Other nations, including Russia and Germany, had seized on the US initiative and built their own civilian nuclear ships. But an accident on the Japanese nuclear-powered cargo ship Mutsu on 1 September 1974, although minor, killed the dream forever.”
–Kennedy Maize
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