Mutsu (ship)

The merchant ship Mutsu (in Japaneseむつ) was driven as the fourth civilian ship after the Soviet icebreaker Lenin, the American Savannah and the German Otto Hahn of a nuclear reactor.

History

The launch of the Mutsu was on 12 June 1969. On 13 July 1970, the ship in Tokyo Ishikawajima - Harima was supported by the Heavy Industries Co. Ltd.. ( IHI ) of Japan Nuclear Ship Development Agency handed over for testing purposes. On July 15th of the same year they contributed, though driven by a steam turbine, the intended home port of Mutsu. There, a light water reactor was installed. In January 1972, the Mutsu should be made as a test ship for nuclear drives for merchant ships in service. The cost of construction of the ship amounted to 21 million U.S. dollars. During startup of the nuclear reactor, however, showed that the shield on the upper part of the reactor was not sufficient. The radiation exposure occurring would have been too large. As an error has been found that a ring of the primary screen in the upper part made ​​of steel, instead of is made of concrete. As a remedy had to be subsequently installed on the steel ring, a 40 cm thick Polyäthylenring. After relatively long repair and maintenance work and a few sea trials repeatedly occurred defects. Not least because the protests Japanese fisherman Mutsu without testing in the field of cargo shipping has been put back from service. In 1995, the reactor was permanently removed and initiates a decontamination program. After a conversion to oceanographic research vessel, the ship is now under way as Mirai.

Technology

The 8,400 -ton Mutsu was all 116.0 meters long, 19.0 meters wide and had a height of 13.2 meters page. The draft was 6.9 meters. The nuclear reactor was from Mitsubishi Atomic Industries. The power of the steam turbine was 7360 kW and 10,000 WPS. With 16.5 kn and 2.8 tons of low-enriched uranium, the ship should easily be able to cover a distance of 145,000 miles.