UK-based nuclear shipping start-up Core Power is set to reach a funding target of $500m, which the company says will support finishing technology designs and building a program for the maritime industry. Core Power has also reached a deal with Mitsubishi Research Institute (MRI) to study market conditions for the program in Japan.
“We are entering an exciting period in the development of maritime nuclear technology as we move from the drawing board to building technology which will change the face of shipping for good,” said Core Power CEO Mikal Bøe. “Japan will play a major role in the development of the specially designed ships as it is a world leader in innovative engineering and shipbuilding. Core Power is also working to build continued support from Japanese, European and American end users in shipping, finance, industry and trading houses,” he added.
Bøe told a press conference in June that the company is expecting to see its first orders for vessels equipped with nuclear reactors before 2030. This includes both floating NPPs (FNPPs) and nuclear-powered ships. “The formation of the first order book starts in 2028-29,” Bøe told Ship & Bunker at the event. “Our aim is to build a $10bn order book by 2030, and the first deliveries would then be in 2030-35 – we’re not quite sure, but I’d say probably in the latter end of that bucket.”
Core Power was formed in 2018 “to bridge that gap and create an organisation that would pave the way for development and successful deployment of advanced reactor technologies for the maritime industries”. In 2023, the company attracted Japanese investment of around $80m for its FNPP project. Some 13 companies, including Onomichi Dockyard and Imabari Shipbuilding, had invested about $80m in project, according to Nikkei Asia.
Bøe told the June meeting that the molten salt reactor (MSR) design that Core Power is working on, using heated and liquefied chloride salts, can solve a number of issues for the maritime sector. Bøe said the first vessel using MSR technology could be launched as early as the mid-2030s, with the company about to build a micro-reactor to test the design, at Idaho National Laboratory (INL) in the US, before then producing a commercial prototype. In August 2022, Core Power, MIT Energy Initiative and INL were awarded research funding by DOE’s Nuclear Energy University Program, a three-year study into the development of offshore floating nuclear power generation in the USA.
Bøe said $2.5bn would be spent on development before a commercial ship is even ordered, much of the financing coming from the US government funds. That is in addition to $150m Washington has already invested, while Core Power shareholders, Wan Hai, Express Container Lines, Terrapower and Hyundai Heavy Industries have all invested in the MSR development. And a new funding round is expected in 2025-26.
