If shipping was a country, its combined emissions would surpass Germany. With almost no improvements over the last few years and an energy requirement that prohibits green alternative fuels at global scale, the first project on nuclear shipping at NTNU started in 2021 to identify nuclear reactors for merchant ships. Initial analyses indicate that nuclear merchant ships will be more profitable than fossil ships even without subsidies.

After reviewing all known reactor concepts in the world by year-end 2023, and subjecting them to 37 different criteria, three reactor technologies were identified – a helium gas-cooled reactor, a molten-salt reactor and a lead-cooled fast reactor. The smallest is only 5 MW turning the total addressable market into 60,000 ships. This is a 3 trillion USD market turning zero-emission shipping into a reality.

The research centre will conduct the remaining research and innovations necessary for launching 2-3 demonstration ships in the early 2030s – an LNG tanker owned by Knutsen OAS, an offshore construction vessel owned by Island Offshore and a floater as a baseload provider to offshore assets for the oil- and gas industry or industry on land. 

The demonstration projects are crucial in reducing the complexity to a level where it becomes manageable through a very high degree of specificity. The demonstration projects will be funded separately. 

The centre is organized into seven work packages; 1) compliance and regulations. 2) nuclear technologies, 3) from heat to propulsion, 4) ship integrations and safety, 5) maritime operations and human factors, 6) stakeholder engagement and 7) education and training. 

The consortium includes 30 organisations, and the uniqueness of the consortium is that all the players in the supply chain are included. This enables truly multi-disciplinary and cross-functional work, which will be instrumental in successfully concluding the demonstration projects.