Crowley proposes energy supply ship with nuclear reactor onboard (Courtesy of the Jacksonville Business Journal) — Jacksonville-based Crowley is teaming up with the company that provides nuclear power components for U.S. Navy ships to create a concept for a power-generating ship with a small nuclear reactor onboard.
The memorandum of understanding, announced Wednesday, would have Crowley and BWX Technologies work together on designing, engineering and developing the shallow-draft hull ship that would be used to supply energy for things like military operations or in disaster areas.
The companies don’t have a customer for such a ship yet. The goal is to have Crowley and BWXT work together to design and bring to market a 378-foot ship, combining Crowley’s vessel design and engineering capabilities with BWXT’s 60 years of experience providing nuclear services to the U.S. government.
It’s too early in the project for details about potential customers or where such a ship would be based to be nailed down.
The microreactor would be installed in the ship in a ship yard and then be used to supply energy to shore facilities, such as military bases on remote island locations or to power backup utility grids after disasters.
The concept of powerships or powerbarges is not new, dating back to the 1930. The few such vessels in operation generally carry a petroleum-fueled power-generation system.
Interest in floating small, modular reactors has been growing, though, according to the International Atomic Energy Agency. For the past five years, Prodigy Clean Energy of Canada and Oregon-based nuclear company NuScale have been working on a floating nuclear-reactor ship, releasing a conceptual design last year.
The Crowley/BWXT plan would see a traditionally-powered ship carrying a modular reactor that could supply between 5 and 50 megawatts sent to shore over buoyed power delivery cables. According to the Energy Information Agency, the typical American home uses about 14 megawatts hours a year.
“Our cooperation with BWXT will move Crowley for the first time into the nuclear energy sector, a key part of our commitment to sustainable, alternative energy sources,” Shiju Zacharia, senior vice president and general manager of Crowley Government Solutions said in a statement. “This concept supports the U.S. Department of Energy’s goal of maintaining U.S. leadership in nuclear energy technology as well as many the U.S. Department of Defense’s strategic goals for operational energy,”
Crowley is one of the largest defense contractors based on the First Coast, responsible for the largest defense logistics contract issued by the government. The company also manages prepositioning ships for the U.S. Marine Corps., provides expeditionary logistical support for missions around the globe and transports fuel to the remote Eareckson Air Station in Shemya, Alaska, among other projects.
Photo courtesy of Mike Mahaffie