[killjoywashere]

So, there's this story that goes around at Office of Naval Research about Enrico Fermi walking in one day and saying he had a new method of powering ships. In retrospect we all realize nuclear power is in fact a great way to power submarines, but they shoo'd him out the door and regretted living to tell the tale. So there's the profound cultural mythos in the Navy around missing out on the next energy solution which probably makes them particularly vulnerable to this line of quackpottery.

https://youtu.be/cNgAMjOVB4Y?t=1221

[nl]

This sounds like a story that has grown to cover some need.

They can't have shoo'd him away for too long, the Navy started working on it in the 1940s and had one in use by 1953.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nuclear_marine_propulsion#Mi...