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20 Jan 2025

The Nuclear Submarine NR-1; Life is Actually Like This.

Pictured is the NR-1 submarine, ported at Naval Submarine Base New London in Groton, Connecticut, March 3, 2013. (Courtesy photo by U.S. Army/Released)

Nuclear energy, and, particularly for me, nuclear ship propulsion, continues to be a tantalizing solution to CO2 reduction.We know nuclear energy works, but from that point on there appear to be more questions than answers. The questions range from economic viability to waste disposal concerns. I am not a nuclear engineer, but in general engineering systems terms, I have followed nuclear power for decades. That is not hard to do, since the pace of nuclear innovation has been slow to say the least.

30 Dec 2024

Design: Great Ships and an Argument for the Anti-Autonomous Ship Crew

“As a six-year-old, I found the the Rhine barges with cars were so much cooler than Rhine barges without cars” writes the author.
Copyright Ralf/AdobeStock

Another trip around the sun and Greg has asked me once again to talk about “great ships.”As an older engineer I find it much more difficult to judge greatness in ships. It was much easier when I was young.When I was quite young and living near the Dutch rivers, I thought the greatest ships were Rhine barges with cars on them. I am talking about the inland cargo vessels that ran up and down the Rhine and through the rest of the European canal and river systems. As a six-year-old, I found the the Rhine barges with cars were so much cooler than Rhine barges without cars.

18 Oct 2024

Highway Construction and Engineering Ethics

Copyright JackF/AdobeStock

Recently I came across an article that commented on the fact that many state highway departments are still promoting increased road construction. Their motivation is reduced congestion and reduced CO2 emissions due to reduced idling during congestion periods. Even tree-hugging, CO2-hating states like California are promoting increased capacity at major arteries that suffer from congestion.The article made mention of the “induced demand” principle which was already identified by traffic engineers in the 1920’s.

10 May 2024

Eye on Design: Hybrid Blood, Sweat, and Tears

Image courtesy the author's library.

In earlier columns, I have discussed various approaches and issues with Hybrid Propulsion.I have now had the pleasure of a number of years of experience with the design, operation, upgrade, modification, and maintenance of ship (and car) hybrid propulsion systems and may be able to make a claim of gradually becoming a little less confused.It is still not easy, but at the same time, I am starting to see a few shortcuts that make it less likely that a beautiful vision of marine efficiency ends up being beached somewhere.In essence, they are variants of the KISS (Keep It Simple Stupid) principle.

19 Apr 2024

When Efficiency Does Not Help Sustainability

Copyright Andriy Sharpilo/AdobeStock

My brother and I had a discussion about methanol where we concluded that methanol is a promising sustainable liquid fuel for transportation devices when batteries cannot do the job. While Methanol is initially not carbon zero, as long as we focus on developing zero carbon electrical energy, eventually we can produce zero carbon green methanol. Once there is plentiful green methanol, existing methanol vehicles will automatically become zero carbon transportation.The core argument…