I personally don't understand why a nuclear power plant is required for EMALS. EMALS was tested for years ashore with no nuclear plant. And current large civilian cruise ships generate huge amounts of electrical power for hotel services and propulsion without resorting to a nuclear power plant.
The main advantage of the nuke plants in US carriers is that the tankage used to store ship's propulsion fuel can instead be used to store aircraft fuel. They also allow the carrier to steam at sustained high speed for long distances to quickly arrive at a distant trouble spot without resorting to refueling enroute and arriving there ready to generate a large number of aircraft sorties.
And as an aside, the biggest reason US carriers are nuke powered is law. Congress passed a law in the 1970s mandating carriers be nuke powered.
Last edited by KenV; 2nd Nov 2017 at 13:29.