@article{GENERAL,
      recid = {11195},
      author = {Smith, N},
      title = {A Lean, Mean, Green Atomic Queen? - The ultimate mission  module},
      journal = {Conference Proceedings of INEC},
      address = {2024-11-07},
      number = {GENERAL},
      abstract = {The Queen Elizabeth class is an amazing asset for the  Royal Navy which provokes endless operational debate about  planes, ramps, catapults, propulsion, etc.  We know that  she is a long-life, upgradeable, flexible asset, with a  large hangar, large flight deck, and large electrical power  system.  As one of the world’s largest integrated  full-electric propulsion warships, there are many questions  about why her grid was conventionally powered, not nuclear,  with answers such as cost, maintainability, disposal, and  entering nuclear free zones cited as various reasons. This  paper, authored by the QE power system designer, poses the  idea, why not make her nuclear?  Not with a big, costly  refit, or billions of pounds, but over a weekend.  She has  the unique flexibility with her electrical power system for  that not to be a crazy notion. 
Small, containerised  nuclear reactors are coming; many are in development and  testing, with a number of companies looking to containerise  them and place them in neighbourhoods around the world, of  course managing the safety case around these modular  reactors. 
If you can drop it off a truck into a  neighbourhood and plug it into a grid, then why not fit it  into a warship that is already electric and already has a  high-power plug on her power system, waiting for such  innovation? 
Ratings of such units are quoted as 2-20MW,  ideal for a ship’s microgrid like those on the QE. This  paper discusses and suggests the realistic application of  small modular reactors for the QE, from a size, system  integration and decarbonisation perspective.  
Containerised, fitted in the hangar, integrated into the  power system, slashing the carbon footprint in a weekend,  removable if you had a mission to a nuclear-free zone, well  capable of providing a large amount of baseline and  cruising power, refuellable in a weekend, developed and  tested by industry with rapid insertion by a Navy. 
Cruise  nuclear, sprint conventional, perhaps; parallel operation  of conventional and nuclear prime movers are eminently  possible. It opens up all sorts of possibilities, which  will be explored in the paper, from using excess power on  board to manufacture e-diesel for the ship to powering  Portsmouth when she is in harbour, rather than the other  way around. 
Imagine the Queen Elizabeth carbon neutral,  reverse-RASing her escorts with e-diesel and telling her  hometown, “When the Queen is in town, your bills go down.”},
      url = {http://library.imarest.org/record/11195},
      doi = {https://doi.org/10.24868/11195},
}