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HOLD ON TO YOUR HORSES... or your uranium, plutonium, nuclear reactors, or what have you...

Not all cargo ships have diesel - some in fact, have nuclear reactors.

Some one once said for every question that begins with "Why" - The answer is always "Money". But this "money answer" is not up front - it is on the rear end.

There have been over a dozen civilian ships (all older then you might think), that were nuclear powered. Nuclear power in civilian vessels has absolutely nothing to do with military, security, fuel economy or "initial" expense. Now that we have some experience and history with these vessels, the real "veto" factor is while everyone knows the "up front" cost, no one knows how many millions (or billions) it is going to cost them to decommission and scrap the vessel and dispose the nuclear material & waste.

Recently the US House and Senate disagreed strongly over funding for a new CVN-76 nuclear aircraft carrier. At a cost to build estimate of $1.2 billion - but the disagreement wasn't based on the initial cost to build her, but rather the estimated $3.4 billion to decommission her after her useful life. (And that of course doesn't include the current 900% Obama inflation rate.)

So, for a civilian merchant company to buy into this, it would be much like you or I buying a new car, and in five years when it all starts falling apart - discovering we have to pay 10 times the initial cost - just to get rid of it. This is why there aren't anymore nuclear vessels in the merchant marines.

I have links below for verification... The song is no more "what do you do with a drunken sailor" but "what do you do with old nuclear vessel".

So sorry guys, I know it would be a fantastic tax deduction, but AmVets just won't run out and take this one away.