SHIPPING: The Nuclear Tanker

Hoping to float a nuclear-powered tanker by 1961, the Atomic Energy Commission and the Maritime Administration last week awarded design-study contracts totaling $400,000 to General Electric Co. and Manhattan's George G. Sharp marine-engineering firm. The plan is to install a boiling-water reactor in a conventional T-5 tanker, now being built by Ingalls Shipbuilding Corp. at Pascagoula, Miss. The Sharp company also is designing the first U.S. atomic passenger and cargo ship, the N.S. Savannah, for launching in 1960. The Government hopes that lessons learned in building the Savannah will make the power plant of the atomic tanker lighter and cheaper than that of the merchantman. While the 22,500-ton tanker will not be economically competitive with a conventional ship, experts reckon that a nuclear tanker of 85,000 to 100.000 tons would be commercially feasible.