Nuclear power as a propulsion system for merchant ships was the future that never arrived.  The Otto Hahn was the second of only four nuclear powered commercial cargo ships ever built.   The first was the NS Savannah, which operated between 1962 and 1972 and is now laid up in Baltimore, MD.  The Otto Hahn was recently scrapped after a long and varied carrier, most of which as a non-nuclear ship.

The Otto Hahn’s  keel was laid in 1963 by Kieler Howaldswerke A.G. and she entered service in 1968 when her reactor was commissioned.   The ship was named in honor of Otto Hahn, the German chemist and Nobel prizewinner, who was credited with the discovery of nuclear fission of uranium in 1938.   She carried ore for ten years until she was laid up in 1979.

In 1983,  the ship was rebuilt as a fully cellular container ship by Rickmers at Bremerhaven, and was renamed  Trophy.  Her nuclear reactor and steam turbines were replaced by a diesel engine.  She would later sail as the Norasia Susan, the Norasia Helga, the Carmen, and the Hua Kang He. In 1998 she was converted back to a general cargo ship and sailed as the Anais, the  Tai, and the Madre.    In November of last year, she sailed to Alang and has now been scrapped.