Could a nuclear carrier appear in 1946?

Could the existence of early atomic-power concepts produce a nuclear aircraft carrier by 1946?

Atomic-powered warships were imagined much earlier, but the exchange does not establish a workable route to a nuclear carrier in 1946.

The discussion traces atomic-powered warships back to proposals that preceded practical marine reactors. Panelists recall material from the 1920s about an atomic pile powering a battleship and further discussion of a nuclear future in the 1930s. Those proposals appeared before their authors understood how workable machinery would operate. Early jet-engine experiments provide a comparison: a concept can exist well before useful propulsion. The exchange establishes that the ideas were early, without settling whether a serviceable nuclear carrier could have been built by 1946.