CORE POWER hosts the world’s largest international summit on maritime nuclear

On 10 July, CORE POWER hosted a landmark New Nuclear for Maritime European Summit at the iconic IET in London, attended by over 300 senior leaders from government, shipping, energy, banking, and insurance.

This was the largest meeting ever held on the topic of new nuclear for maritime.

Rt Hon Anne-Marie Trevelyan, former UK Trade Secretary and Foreign Office Minister, framed the narrative directly: developing new nuclear for maritime in the OECD is "not a technological frontier, but a geopolitical imperative."

It was made clear that acceleration is achieved by combining marine-ready nuclear technologies with mass assembly in shipyards of fully modular, nuclear energy products.

Addressing the gathered audience, Dr Tim Stone of Great British Nuclear, defined the catalogue of nuclear energy products now being formed as 'floating clean energy centers'.

In a stark reminder of what the COP28 tripling of nuclear energy pledge to meet net-zero targets means in practice, Sama Bilbao y León Director General of the World Nuclear Association (WNA), declared that "Floating Nuclear Power Plants are a great opportunity to accelerate these goals".

Supporting aggressive timescales and forming a vital support function to the international community is the Nuclear Energy Maritime Organization (NEMO).

NEMO Chairman Dr. Mamdouh el-Shanawany took to the stage to announce the organisation reaching the milestone of 50 members and achieving official NGO status at both the IAEA and the IMO, the critical UN agencies dealing with regulations in this domain.

Showcasing advanced reactor technologies, defined regulatory pathways, civil liability regimes and insurance, as well as a clear demonstration of how the workforce for new nuclear in maritime is being developed today, it was clear that the strong momentum which has been building over the last seven years, means that 2025 is the year that maritime nuclear goes mainstream.