Earlier quoted context omitted.
I wonder if we'll see non-pwr naval reactors anytime soon. A high temp reactor would allow using a supercritical CO2 Brayton cycle which would take up much less space. On another note, what would happen if a MSR powered ship would sink and the fuel salt would come into contact with sea water? Would the salts dissolve into the water? Much as I like MSR's as a concept, if so this would make them a quite bad idea on a s…
Not in the US Navy. Part of the reason the US Navy standardized on PWR is that while it's not the most efficient it is something you can restart at depth if necessary. The lesson of how much that matters was driven home by the loss of the USS Thresher.
The kind of emergency restart procedure employed today would work just fine on a MSR design. We're talking restarts on the order 1-10 minutes after an emergency shutdown. That's not nearly enough time to solidify the core, even when you are drawing some steam for emergency propulsion needs while the reactor is shutdown.