In the 1960,s what if great britain builds its first nuclear Aircraft Carrier? What would it take for the Admiralty to get what it wants?
Some kind of fire on Ark or Eagle renders them a TCL, or the Cuban thing goes hot - well, lukewarm rather than full-on End of The World As We Know It - and one of them eats a torpedo or a Raduga KSR-2.
A new CV is now necessary, and the CVA-01 plans get dusted off (or just not cancelled).
How viable is it to shove 5 of Valiant's Rolls-Royce PWRs in instead of the conventional boilers in CVA-01?
France developed its own naval reactor using low enriched uranium caramel fuel in curved plates, so there is no technical reason why Britain couldn't do something similar. Financial problems would be the biggest hurdle, the British developed hydrogen peroxide submarines rather than incur the expense of a nuclear program.
Perhaps the British could just buy the A3W reactors developed for the JFK, they had 140;000shp. However the case for nuclear power plants for surface warships wasn't fully justified until the late 60s with the A4W reactor.
1) a joint plan with the French would make the most sense, build 3 carriers jointly, and hope at least one is usable when you need it. (1 undergoing refit, 1 in port, 1 at sea, that kind of thing.) Costs will be lower per unit spread over multiple units.France developed its own naval reactor using low enriched uranium caramel fuel in curved plates, so there is no technical reason why Britain couldn't do something similar. Financial problems would be the biggest hurdle, the British developed hydrogen peroxide submarines rather than incur the expense of a nuclear program.