Title:

Nuclear Ship Savannah, 20th Century Solutions for the Future

Speaker:

Mr. Erhard W. Koehler

Affiliation:

U.S. Department of Transportation, Maritime Administration (MARAD)

When:

Thursday, September 5, 2024 at 11:00:00 AM   Add to Calendar

Where:

Boggs Building, Room 3-47

Host:

Fan Zhang
fan.zhang@me.gatech.edu

Abstract

In July 2023, the International Maritime Organization adopted a revised Greenhouse Gas Initiative to reach net-zero GHG emissions from international shipping by 2050. This goal has prompted vigorous and sustained interest in commercial nuclear merchant ships. In this environment, the pioneering work of the Savannah Program in establishing precedents for operation of a waterborne, mobile, domestically-licensed nuclear power plant in international trade mean that the wheel does not need to be reinvented – it merely needs to be improved. Provided, of course, that the international maritime and nuclear licensing communities know and understand the precedents. Mr. Koehler will discuss how the Eisenhower-era promise of peaceful nuclear ship propulsion can have practical application in the 21st Century.

Biography

Erhard W. Koehler Manager, Nuclear Ship SAVANNAH Programs, U.S. Department of Transportation, Maritime Administration (MARAD). Also Senior Technical Advisor, N.S. SAVANNAH – acting as the agency’s designated licensee to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission. N.S. SAVANNAH, the world’s first nuclear-powered merchant ship, is a National Historic Landmark, and a signature remnant of President Eisenhower’s visionary Atoms for Peace program. SAVANNAH is the only NRC-licensed power facility owned by the Department of Transportation. Erhard Koehler is a 1987 graduate of the State University of New York Maritime College, with a BE degree in Naval Architecture. After 3-1/2 years as a structural and field-support engineer with the Philadelphia Naval Shipyard, he joined MARAD’s Office of Ship Operations in Washington, DC in early 1991. An avid amateur maritime historian, Erhard enthusiastically jumped at the assignment in late 1992 to oversee the SAVANNAH’s return to MARAD custody from the Patriots Point Naval and Maritime Museum, and her subsequent 1994 drydocking and relocation to the agency’s reserve fleet site near Newport News, Virginia. He remained with the ship as a project engineer and member of the licensee organization during its protective storage period. In 2004 he succeeded to the agency’s senior SAVANNAH management positions. As Manager, N.S. SAVANNAH Programs, Erhard is responsible for all program activities related to licensed operations, maintenance, repair, custody and preservation of the SAVANNAH. He leads a comprehensive blended government-contractor organization to perform decommissioning of the ship’s remaining nuclear facilities, with a projected completion timeframe in 2026. He is married to the former Linda Malay, herself a graduate of SUNY Maritime. They reside in the rolling hillsides of northeastern Maryland. They have three adult children and one granddaughter.

Notes

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