On March 9 South Korean shipbuilding giant HD Hyundai announced the signing of a joint development agreement with American Bureau of Shipping to advance the conceptual design of nuclear-electric propulsion systems for container ships. Signed at the Global R&D Center, the agreement will bring together Hyundai’s advanced shipbuilding capabilities with the American Bureau of Shipping (ABS), which is one of the world’s leading classification societies that plays an important role in the evaluation of ship designs and certifying that vessels meet international safety and performance standards.
Russia’s growing fleet of nuclear-powered icebreakers have been the only non-military ships with nuclear propulsion systems. This could change over the next decade as new small modular reactors (SMRs) come online. Only in the past year have there been agreements and new active discussion of nuclear cargo ships.
The Hyundai-ABS project involves the design and development of a 16,000 TEU class containership with one or two SMRs with a total capacity of some 100 MW generating the equivalent of 130,000 horsepower. Ideally the ship would have twin-screws with direct electrical power from two SMRs, which would give the ship high speed and excellent maneuverability. While the SMRs that would be appropriate for such ships has yet to be discussed, the molten salt thorium technology is in discussion. To be sure the project is a long way before reaching the shipyards, but a deployment of such a ship could be possible by the mid-2030s according to experts.
