The South Korean shipyard Hyundai Korea Shipbuilding & Offshore Engineering (HD KSOE) has presented a project for a new nuclear-powered container ship using Small Modular Reactors (SMR) as a potential solution to reduce emissions in the maritime sector.
The project was presented at the Maritime Nuclear Energy Summit held on February 12 in Houston, Texas (USA) after receiving an Approval in Principle (AiP) from the classification society American Bureau of Shipping (ABS) for a ship with a capacity of 15,000 TEU.
The nuclear propulsion of this new ship eliminates the need for engine exhaust systems and fuel tanks, which optimizes space to increase cargo capacity. Additionally, to improve safety, it incorporates a radiation shielding system with a double stainless steel tank and “light” or conventional water as a cooling system (compared to the “heavy” deuterium water used in other nuclear reactors).
In collaboration with the American energy company Baker Hughes, HD KSOE has integrated a propulsion system based on supercritical carbon dioxide (sCO2), due to its ability to improve electricity generation efficiency, thanks to its properties that allow operation at higher temperatures and pressures. The use of sCO2 increases thermal efficiency by about 5% compared to conventional steam systems. These innovations will be tested and verified at a maritime nuclear technology testing center in Yongin, South Korea.
For ABS’s Technology Director, Patrick Ryan, “nuclear propulsion represents a paradigm shift in a maritime sector where achieving net-zero emissions is a priority.”
In this regard, the Director of the HD KSOE Green Energy Research Laboratory, Park Sangmin, stated at one of the panels during the maritime nuclear summit that HD KSOE is strengthening cooperation with major classification societies and international regulatory bodies to establish the international regulations necessary for the commercial use of nuclear-powered vessels. “Our goal is to develop a marine nuclear business model by 2030,” concluded Park Sangmin.
Since 2023, HD KSOE has been working with TerraPower on the development of next-generation SMRs. By the end of that year, it secured a contract to manufacture the main reactor equipment for the Natrium reactor, currently under construction in Wyoming, USA.
