Nuclear Propulsion Roadmap for Australia – A faster way ahead?

Christopher Skinner, Editor, Nuclear Propulsion Roadmap for Australia. 

VENUE: Harricks Auditorium, 8 Thomas Street, Chatswood, NSW 2068.

DATE & TIME: Wednesday 17 July 2019, 5.30 pm for a 6.00 pm start.

Click here for Slides of Presentation

 

Abstract

Nuclear propulsion was developed in the USA for its Navy submarines at the start of the Cold War, and then followed the application to other ships and to civil electric power generation stations. Today Australia has an extraordinary challenge to achieve reliable, affordable and low emission energy while constrained by federal and state legislated prohibitions on nuclear fuel processing from our bountiful supplies of uranium ores, or from applying nuclear technology for commercial power generation.

This talk describes a parallel movement to introduce nuclear propulsion for future Australian submarines to provide enhanced performance over very long ranges and time durations. This effort is being undertaken by a private-venture group that convened in Adelaide in October 2018 and is committed to development of the Roadmap to describe how we get there including the various options that are available. The thesis of this talk is that Australia may well achieve nuclear propulsion before nuclear power stations.

About Chris Skinner

Chris Skinner is a former naval weapons and electrical engineering officer with extensive sea service in surface combatant ships. He first became involved and interested in submarines during the Submarine Weapons Upgrade Project [SWUP] when the Harpoon anti-ship missile and wire-guided MK 48 torpedoes were integrated into the Australian submarine force. Since then he has worked in USA and Australia in defence and transport industry roles while maintaining a deep interest in maritime geopolitical and technological developments.

Chris holds a BSc(Eng) degree in electrical engineering from University of London and a Master of Engineering Science in Software Engineering from UNSW. He is a Chartered Professional Engineer with Engineers Australia, a Chartered member of IET, life member of IEEE, Chartered member of Australian Computer Society and life member of Association for Computing Machinery and the US Naval submarine League.