Maritime nuclear is moving into a more practical phase. The question is no longer simply whether nuclear technology can operate at sea. Increasingly, the focus is on what is required to deploy it safely, commercially and at scale. That shift was clear at the first NEMO and Nuclear Institute conference in London this week, where discussions across the nuclear, maritime, regulatory, insurance and legal sectors focused on the wider conditions needed to support deployment.
For CORE POWER CEO Mikal Bøe, one of the central challenges is how nuclear is delivered. Traditional nuclear projects have often been large, bespoke and slow to build. If nuclear is to serve new markets, including shipping and floating power, the model needs to become more repeatable.
Smaller systems, built in greater numbers through established manufacturing and shipyard processes, create an opportunity to move from individual projects toward repeatable products. But that model also depends on sufficient market demand to support industrial-scale delivery.
The regulatory challenge is equally important. CORE POWER Principal Nuclear Engineer Ioannis Kourasis presented work from the NEMO Nuclear Safety At Sea Taskforce, which reviewed the applicability of existing IAEA safety guidance to nuclear merchant ships.
The taskforce found that recommendations covering the majority of Safety Analysis Report chapters are applicable without amendment, provided maritime-specific hazards and end states such as grounding, capsizing and sinking are taken into account.
It also identified areas where existing guidance may need revision, supplementary guidance or bespoke interpretation. One example is the concept of site characteristics: unlike a land-based nuclear facility, a nuclear merchant ship may operate across shipyards, ports and operational areas during its lifecycle.
This is an important distinction. The emerging framework for maritime nuclear does not necessarily need to be created from first principles. Much of the foundation already exists, but it must be tested against the realities of maritime operation.
That need for practical testing was also reflected in the conference’s final panel, where CORE POWER VP of Regulatory Development Scott Edwards emphasized the importance of bringing credible projects to regulators.
Real designs and use cases allow regulators to work through specific questions rather than theoretical scenarios. The same applies to wider initiatives such as the IAEA’s ATLAS program, where the value will increasingly lie in tangible outputs that can support future projects, from tabletop exercises to clearer regulatory pathways and usable frameworks.
The direction of travel is therefore becoming clearer. Maritime nuclear deployment will depend not only on viable technology, but on the systems around it: regulation, insurance, liability, infrastructure, training and public confidence.
The next phase is about developing those elements together. That is what will determine how maritime nuclear moves from being a promising technology to a deployable industry.
