Nuclear shipping could avoid that however, by placing a much stronger emphasis and quality of training.
The United States has its own Merchant Marine. A cargo vessel traveling between Hawaii and the West Coast would be designed to use a nuclear reactor. The reactor space would belong to the United States Navy, and run by sailors trained on nuclear reactors. No combat pay needed, no submarine pay needed, they just have to stare at the reactor and make sure it is operating normally. Everything else is handled by the regular merchant marine crew.
The
Savannah was designed as a cruise ship and a freighter, so it didn't do that well at either job. Dedicate the ship as a freighter, and use the tonnage freed up from needing fuel oil to the nuclear core. When it is time to change out the reactor, it goes to a Navy facility, and the whole room is removed and replaced. The reactor change out time is set up to be slightly longer than the required time between drydock maintenance.
Using the
Emma Mærsk as an example, it is rated to carry up to 17,000 tons of fuel oil for its 2300 ton engine. The fuel oil is very nasty stuff, environmentally speaking. Also, with nuclear power, you don't have to worry about bilge or ballast water, since the only thing to change the ship's draft is the cargo mass. This avoids the issue for invasive species.
So a nuclear freighter woud be used between states in the United States, using the 50 years of reliable nuclear service the US Navy has established, and be designed to operate steadily, on a lower purity fuel so it never becomes a target. I'd see one or more islands in Hawaii being used a cargo transhipping locations for cargo heading to the United States if the nuclear ship is cheaper. The cargo is delivered to Hawaii via regular freighter. It is then stored in warehouses (or in the open in a standard shipping container). The nuclear freighter then arrives (on its boring schedule), pops in, unloads some containers, loads the others, and returns.
Extra power generated during the trip can be used to fill the fresh water tanks, assuming the sailors don't take advantage of that for longer showers. If they have too much fresh water, some can be dumped overboard and the reactor uses its waste heat to boil more salt water. If it had extra fresh water when it arrived, it can fill its salt water tanks from nearby locations, and process/offload fresh water for the island while transhipping cargo.