They’re pointing out that aircraft carriers are heavy as fuck and float just fine.
No electric, though. If it had electric, it would be too heavy. And if there was a shark 10 feet away? Not a chance.
Fair enough.
I guess I assumed that people were thinking of electric-battery powered boats based on the discussion. But if its just a matter of weight, we all know that boats can be arbitrarily heavy and still float (as long as they are big enough to compensate for that weight).
You’re completely right. But it is incredibly fucking hilarious to me that, out of context, your question to an assumed layperson is that they should know how nuclear power (a very complex subject that I (a power plant operator who worked at a nuclear power plant in various contracting capacities for about ten years) cannot fully explain) works.
Idk, it’s like overhearing from a table over in a restaurant “how do you think brain surgery works?” How the fuck should anybody without intense familiarity with such a niche subject know that?
But yes, you are absolutely right. All you have to do is google “do nuclear subs have batteries” lmao. We all could have that level of knowledge with two seconds of “work”.
Worth noting that Nuke subs have batteries but Carriers do not use batteries for auxiliary power. They have 2 independent plants (Enterprise had more, but that’s decommissioned now), and use diesel generators as a backup. That’s not to say there’s no batteries on a carrier, but not like a ship-wide battery system. But obviously that has nothing to do with “how heavy” batteries are, so I guess this is all beside the point.
No-no-no, this sucker’s electrical, but I need a nuclear reaction to generate the 1.21 jigawatts of electricity I need.
