We dont allow any nuclear ships in NZ because the ships are some sort of “boogyman”. We dont let the ships in because you dont tell us which ones store the nuclear bombs! So we treat all the ships like they are carrying nukes and dont allow any of them.
Our nuclear policy bans vessels that are nuclear armed or nuclear powered, so even if the USA can guarantee they don’t have nuclear weapons on board, their nuclear propulsion rules them out.
Interestingly though, it is about the ships. Although we have no nuclear power plants, they are not banned.
So while it does ban nuclear propulsion, I would suspect it’s not about the nuclear propulsion and is instead because we don’t trust them not to lie.
This was always my thought. If they dont tell us what boats have the bombs then any boat that throws off a wonky rad signiture is banned. We cant tell the difference and know immediatly that we could not trust their word on it.
I’m pretty sure there is no way to detect a nuclear bomb stored in the belly of a ship.
I dont think old mate is heading out in a row boat with a giger counter. There would be military inspections and signoffs right?
Yeah, nuclear power plants being banned is another common misconception.