What's the reasoning behind making the big deck amphibs conventionally powered vice nuclear?
What's the difference in cost over the lifetime of driving one with dead dinos and one with decaying rocks?
I think that's a VERY good question. The answer as to Life Cycle Costs is...TA-DA!...NO ONE KNOWS. We have yet to decomm our first NP aircraft carrier...but I'm guessing it may be fairly eye-watering. Could be wrong...not my swim lane. ENTERPRISE won't be a good bench mark...one of a kind...I'm sure the NIMITZ-class will be better.
The "better question" might be "why do we continue to build NP carriers when every other ship in the world is conventionally or "hybrid" powered?".
Despite all of the "Kool-Aid"we've all drunk over the decades about the advantages of nuclear power, here's just a couple of factoids for your consideration:
1. Kool-Aid: CVNs can generate more sorties than any other platform:
During DESERT STORM, where there were a total of 6 CV(N)s in the fight, the carrier with the "highest number of combat sorties during the campaign" was USS MIDWAY....operating with only two...count 'em, TWO...catapults. And that was with 4 days "inport" for re-application of non-skid on the flight deck.
2. Kool-Aid: CVNs can deliver more ordnance than any other platform:
During DESERT STORM, the "highest tonnage" [only metric that seems applicable...] was dropped by USS RANGER: Conventionally powered, and armed with a weird "All Grumman" air wing of only Tomcats and Intruders and Prowlers (yeah, Vikings, too...). Go figure.
3. Kool-Aid: Only NP warships can "sprint to the action" in time of need:
Probably true, assuming they want to leave the rest of the CSG and the entire logistics pipeline far behind. Has this "presumed capability" ever meant diddley-squat to world event or US foreign policy?
I would offer the postulate (open for discourse...) that perhaps we have become "so committed" to the concept of nuclear-powered aircraft carriers that we cannot be dissuaded from potentially better alternatives...that ought to be discussed, if not explored.