China's Jiangnan Shipyard recently officially released the world's first and the world's largest 24,000TEU container ship design at the 2023 China International Maritime Technology Academic Conference and Exhibition. The container ship will adopt the design of the nuclear power system of the thorium-based molten salt reactor independently developed by China, and adopt the design scheme of all-electric propulsion, dual-engine dual-drive, double-shaft and double-propeller, so as to improve the power output power and maximize the speed of the ship.
China's nuclear power program for large container ships is the fifth country to propose a technical program for nuclear-powered cargo ships after the United States, Germany, Japan, and the former Soviet Union. It is widely believed that just like the nuclear-powered ships of the United States and Japan and the nuclear-powered icebreakers of the former Soviet Union, after learning from the past experience of other countries, how will the power system of this giant container ship verify its nuclear power system for China's first nuclear-powered aircraft carrier.
According to the information released by Jiangnan Shipyard, the container ship uses a thorium-based molten salt reactor, compared with the enriched uranium pressurized water reactor that has been tested in other countries, the thorium-based molten salt reactor has lower requirements for pressure vessels, so it is easy to build, followed by no risk of core meltdown, and the waste produced by the reactor is relatively safe.
The big problem in the use of thorium-based molten salt reactor is the circuit medium fluoride salt, which is highly corrosive and has a short overhaul period, about 15 years. Compared with the 24 years of the Nimitz-class nuclear-powered aircraft carriers of the United States, the 15-year cycle is shorter, because each overhaul will take more than three years, and the operating costs caused by the overhaul will increaseCompared to the more advanced Ford-class aircraft carriers, which have a maintenance cycle of 50 years, we still have a long way to go, after all, we started relatively late.
According to the information released by Jiangnan Shipyard, the 24,000TEU-class container ship has a total length of about 400 meters, a width of 61 meters, a displacement of 240,000 tons, and a maximum speed of 225 knots. With such a power system, it can be reinstalled on an aircraft carrier of about 80,000 tons, and the maximum speed of 30 knots can also be guaranteed. At present, the announcement is all-electric system propulsion, the United States Ford-class aircraft carrier has not yet completely overcome some of the problems of all-electric system propulsion, from which it can be seen that our first nuclear power system container ship will use all-electric system propulsion, our nuclear power technology whether in military or civilian, has been squeezed into the forefront of the world's advanced technology.
Civilian nuclear reactors have different requirements than military nuclear reactors, requiring a long period of testing and a lot of validation, and there are many problems that we need to solve in the future that we have not encountered so far. In the past, the United States, Germany, and Japan have encountered a lot of technical problems with power test ships, so we still have a long way to go.