Following is a detailed listing of the factors that make the N.S. SAVANNAH so safe:
SAFETY FACTORS
As the world’s first commercial, nonstationary type of nuclear power plant, the SAVANNAH’s design and construction have resulted in a vessel with an unprecedented degree of safety. Basically, the safety considerations concern two separate but closely inter-related factors:
(1) The hull and interior structure surpass the highest standards of safety, both in the conventional marine sense and in the light of the additional factors created by the installation of a nuclear propulsion plant; and
(2) The nuclear propulsion system creates no more hazard to the crew and passengers, and other ships in a busy port, than any modern conventional steam propulsion system—actually, in the light of safety factors, included because of its prototype nature, the N.S. SAVANNAH is as safe as, and in some respects safer than, a steam-powered vessel that burns coal or oil.
The basic difference in safety between a nuclear-powered ship and a conventionally powered ship involves radioactivity which results from the fission process. Provision has been made to control this radioactivity on the SAVANNAH under all foreseeable conditions. This control is accomplished through the following design and operational features:
HULL AND INTERIOR STRUCTURE
In general, the following safety requirements were used by the SAVANNAH’s architects, George G. Sharp, Inc., in the design of the ship:
(1) The ship is as safe as, or safer than, any other vessel of its class with regard to the usual “hazards of the sea”; and
(2) In no credible accident can there be any hazardous release of radioactivity to the surroundings.