I don’t think an all nuclear carrier fleet is necessary. A conventional carrier gives you the same capability at 2/3rds the cost(over entire service life). The air wing could care less how the snipes boil water.
great point. if you could make more carriers for the same or less cost then that savings could be shifted to a more balanced fleet size. a lot of the “anti carrier” talk is based on just that.
Until they realize that 50 percent of the fuel capacity of the ship is reserved to boiling water.