Last week, the US and the UK announced the launch of a new Atlantic civil nuclear power partnership. Its main objective is to halve the time required for approving new nuclear power plant construction projects in the UK and the US.
With this agreement, both countries pledge to explore new opportunities for implementing nuclear power in the maritime sector. It also involves developing common international standards and potentially setting up a blue corridor between the two countries.
The Atlantic pact also includes the possibility of building floating nuclear power plants capable of supplying clean electricity to customers in coastal markets and studying the development of nuclear-powered cargo vessels capable of transporting more goods and providing a zero-emission solution to power global shipping.
With the new agreement, nuclear power is once again a central issue on the maritime agenda. In Lloyd’s List, Richard Meade points out that with the new Atlantic pact, nuclear power is once again a central issue on the maritime agenda, emphasizing how there is a growing international need to develop new reactors to meet rising energy demand and the challenges of decarbonization.
Barclays forecasts that between 2030 and 2050, net nuclear capacity outside China and Russia will probably increase by more than half, reaching over 450 GW, with low-carbon reactors accounting for 40%–60% of the total. Moreover, last November, at COP29, six new countries (El Salvador, Kazakhstan, Kenya, Kosovo, Nigeria and Turkey) signed a historic commitment to triple global nuclear power capacity by 2050.
The International Energy Agency’s estimates on investment in low-carbon reactors foresee the current $5 billion rise to over $25 billion in ten years’ time, with a cumulative investment of $670 billion by 2050.
According says Mikal Bøe, CEO of CORE POWER, a British company at the forefront of the nuclear sector, there is a growing number of companies interested in the shipping industry that are actively considering using nuclear energy as part of their broader path towards Net-Zero. The most recent case is the project to build a nuclear micro-tunnel in London Gateway port, led by Last Energy in collaboration with DP World. This €92 million initiative, which does not require public subsidies, is linked to the £1 billion expansion currently underway at London Gateway, launched by DP World in May 2025.
Mr. Boe claims that the agreement between the US and the UK has the merit of recognizing the economic benefit of civil maritime nuclear power, defining the regulatory framework for rapidly implementing the technology and involving the shipbuilding industry in designing nuclear-powered ships. He believes the new generation of low -or zero-pressure reactors represents the future of commercial maritime propulsion.
According to the company manager, nuclear ships are attracting increasing interest because they do not need to be refueled and because, in principle, they could operate without any interruptions throughout their entire life cycle.
However, all that glitters is not gold. There are a number of major obstacles standing between the ambitions of industry lobbyists and the widespread adoption of nuclear propulsion in the shipping sector.
Jarek Klimczak, consultant at GCUO-Risk Consulting, points out that the fact that nuclear- powered vessels require a significant initial cost to install reactors cannot be ignored.
He argues that operating costs associated with using and carrying out maintenance on these merchant vessels are still too high for them to provide shipowners with any kind of profit, as in the case of the NS Savannah, the first nuclear-powered merchant vessel to come into service which was decommissioned just eight years later, in 1970, because it was too expensive to operate.
There are also numerous unresolved issues regarding how to regulate the use of these types of vessels.
Klimczak explains how Chapter VIII of the International Convention for the Safety of Life at Sea (SOLAS) and the Safety Management Code for Nuclear Ships (Res. A.491.XII) establish criteria for the design, operation, safety and decommissioning of nuclear-powered vessels. These regulations, which have recently been incorporated into UK law, were also intended to supplement and update the 1962 Brussels Convention, which never came into force, however.
The consequence is that current international regulations are, to date, only a non-binding soft law. Without any real regulatory standardization at international level, there is a risk that nuclear ships will be forced to comply with any binding national laws or regulations.
Another difficult issue to solve is training. Jarek Klimczak points out that, with the development of nuclear propulsion, highly specialized skills will be required. He highlights the need to develop advanced training programmes that can be adapted to the specific type of reactor technology used on board ships. In his view, an in-depth knowledge of the reactor’s operating characteristics, safety protocols and emergency response procedures will be essential.
To sum up, nuclear power represents the future for the maritime sector, but it will take time to build this future and overcome the critical issues. As Richard Meade puts it: “Despite the new innovations and promise of SMR costs ultimately being attractive, the economics remain troublesome and the deliverables vague in terms of timelines.” In his mind, the bilateral agreement between the United States and the United Kingdom has certainly given new impetus to discussions on the development of these technologies. However, there are many issues to be resolved, and not only in shipping terms.
According to Mikal Bøe, the private sector is ready to provide technology, financing and solutions, while the public sector must define the conditions for approval and licensing. “It’s really a question of how quickly we can bring this to market” says the CEO of Core Power. “I think it’s possible we may actually see the first nuclear assets coming out prior to 2030”
His hypothesis is highly optimistic, however. It fails to take into account a much more complex reality, in which numerous projects are plagued by chronic delays and skyrocketing costs.
According to the World Nuclear Industry Status Report, the lack of investment in the sector, the increasing obsolescence of current reactors, and fierce competition from renewable forms of energy now risk slowing down global nuclear power production capacity, which reached its historic peak in 2024, at 2,677 terawatt hours.
The Report dampens any easy enthusiasm, highlighting the possibility that the share of nuclear power in global energy production will decline steadily over the next ten years.
According to the study, it will be very difficult to maintain the 2024 production capacity levels between now and 2030, unless the pact between US President Donald Trump and British Prime Minister Keir Starmer truly succeeds in giving new impetus to the sector.
