Criteria for Selecting Nuclear Reactors for Merchant Shipping

Abstract The Deep-Sea Fleet consumes about 300 million tonnes of Heavy Fuel Oil (HFO) annually and emits 3% of global greenhouse gas emissions. Currently, green ammonia is seen as the most promising zero-emission substitute. Yet, if green ammonia was to replace HFO, an equivalent to 2.7 times the total EU electricity production in 2022 would be required to produce this fuel. Therefore, the shipping industry investigates whether nuclear power can provide a viable, safe, and cost-effective solution to this challenge. Some navies have successfully used small Light Water Reactors for decades, but studies identify many challenges including costs and public acceptance related to use of such reactors in merchant ships. However, one study demonstrates that for an AfraMax size tanker, the life-cycle cost savings are expected to be 65–70 million US dollars by using a denatured Molten Salt Reactor assuming that the publicly available information is realistic. With over 80 different reactor concepts identified by yearend 2022 primarily from IAEA’s Small Modular Reactor Handbook, there is a need to develop criteria that can help the shipping industry robustly identify suitable nuclear reactors. This paper presents and discusses these criteria to enable the next step in the process, the actual selection of reactor technologies for merchant shipping.