The Atom: Ready to Go

Throughout the week a small army of engineers, painters, technicians and nuclear physicists worked on the sleek, white-hulled ship lying in her slip at Camden, N.J. Early next month the N.S. (for nuclear ship) Savannah* the world's first atomic-powered merchant ship, will go to Yorktown, Va., for dockside tests, then head out into the Atlantic for sea trials. Said Dr. Marvin M. Mann, project manager of the ship's nuclear power plant: "For all practical purposes, the Savannah is completed."

President Dwight Eisenhower in 1955 asked Congress for money for a nuclear-powered merchant vessel, partly for the technological payoff, partly to impress on the world U.S. interest in the peaceful atom. The 22,000-ton Savannah now stands the taxpayers nearly $47 million—about 50% more than a similar-sized, conventional ship. She will be able to cruise 300,000 nautical miles on a single fueling of her reactor. At first, the Savannah will be operated by the Maritime Administration as a sort of atomic-age tramp steamer, carrying up to 60 passengers and 10,000 tons of cargo at prevailing rates, without a set schedule. Then, in another 18 months, the Savannah will be chartered to the States Marine Lines, which will put her in service on a regular commercial schedule.

The Savannah's reactor, a time-tested model similar to those used in U.S. nu clear submarines, will drive the ship at a speed of 21 knots. One problem for the Savannah designers was to shield the $10 million reactor so that a collision with another ship would not release death dealing radiation. To accomplish this, the ship's nuclear engineers encased the reactor in reinforced bulkheads, extra-heavy plating, a 2-ft.-thick "collision mat" made of layers of steel and redwood, and some 2,000 tons of lead and concrete.