Not this light carrier stuff again...
Carriers are there to launch and recover aircraft, enough to matter and often enough to get the job done. To do this requires:
- a flight deck w/cats & arresting gear... large footprint
- ordinance for planes ...volume and tonnage
- fuel for planes ...volume and tonnage
- storage for planes ... volume
- parts and repairs for planes ... volume
- propulsion to operate aircraft and get where needed
fossil fueled: cheaper, but fuel bunkers and air shafts(both ways) eat volume and effect arrangement.
nuclear: expensive, but opens more volume for purposes above, and does not interfere with other arrangements.
Obviously a simplified argument, and EMALS seems to still be evolving issue, but the best modern carrier is a big nuclear volume box that carries all that is needed to perform the spectrum of missions that may be assigned.
Bingo. End of discussion.