I wonder if there is a nuclear reactor design nowadays that offsets at least some of these fears. I sometimes wonder, though admittedly as a non expert, if some of these fears that linger around nuclear power sources are behind the times.
For example, I saw a demonstration of a nuclear powered device (don’t want to say reactor per say) that was taped for a documentary I saw on PBS, it was the size of a water heater or so and had a self protection system in case of something like a rupture, that at least during the demonstration stopped it cold in its tracks preventing meltdown and made any recovered materials from tampering worthless. It was in the testing phase though, and this was at least 5 years ago. My understanding is they wanted it to power critical infrastructure onsite like hospitals but feasibly it could power a home if I recall correctly or possibly a couple homes.
Another thing I read about was using some form of partially enriched uranium as energy source for heating homes and water heating. It won’t power one but it’s not (and can’t possibly be if I recall correctly) weapons grade by any stretch of the imagination
Maybe we should as a society look a little closer at smaller reactors. Hard to say, I’m no expert
You might be thinking of radioisotope thermoelectric generators. Those can be useful for generating relatively small amounts of electric power in isolated areas. But they're very inefficient and can't scale up to the level required to propel large ships. The risk of contamination from a sinking would still remain. So not a realistic solution.
For example, I saw a demonstration of a nuclear powered device (don’t want to say reactor per say) that was taped for a documentary I saw on PBS, it was the size of a water heater or so and had a self protection system in case of something like a rupture, that at least during the demonstration stopped it cold in its tracks preventing meltdown and made any recovered materials from tampering worthless. It was in the testing phase though, and this was at least 5 years ago. My understanding is they wanted it to power critical infrastructure onsite like hospitals but feasibly it could power a home if I recall correctly or possibly a couple homes.
Another thing I read about was using some form of partially enriched uranium as energy source for heating homes and water heating. It won’t power one but it’s not (and can’t possibly be if I recall correctly) weapons grade by any stretch of the imagination
Maybe we should as a society look a little closer at smaller reactors. Hard to say, I’m no expert