I was told 30 years ago that the reason the nuclear merchant ship NS Savannah was retired was that she practically glowed in the dark -- and didn't make money, either.
She was introduced with old style cargo handling just as containerized shipping was becoming the standard. They tried lashing containers to the deck but was still not profitable. If you get a chance, vist this ship, it is interesting. If it glowed in the dark, we tourist wouldn't be allowed to visit it.....or would we?
Ping
I thought the Savannah had been broken up.
On second thought, it wasn't Savannah that I heard that "glow-in-the-dark" comment about, it was the Soviet nuclear icebreaker Lenin. Again, scuttlebutt, but that's what I heard.
Tom Clancy said something in Hunt for Red October about that problem, and how it limited the career lives of American nuclear submarines.