Nuclear Ships Just Cleared Three Design Reviews, But They’re Potentially Decades From Trading Port to Port
ABS granted an AiP in mid-July 2026 for a 15,000 TEU containership concept with two molten salt reactors developed by KAERI, KRISO, and Samsung Heavy Industries under South Korea’s K‑Moonshot programme, at an estimated reactor design cost of around 29 billion won (≈$19.5 million); Lloyd’s Register approved a pure car and truck carrier concept based on Hyundai Glovis’s 7,000 CEU design in June, with a JDP involving HD Hyundai Heavy Industries, KSOE, Hyundai Glovis, G‑Marine Service, and KAERI; and ABS granted a further AiP for a reactor design from the MIT Maritime Consortium using a synthetic heat‑transfer fluid at near‑atmospheric pressure. AiPs do not constitute a certificate to build or a permit to operate, and Lloyd’s Register has stated that an AiP is not a guarantee of eventual regulatory approval; nuclear‑shipping codes remain decades out of date, and the last commercial nuclear vessels—NS Savannah (1962) and NS Otto Hahn (1964)—were not commercial successes.
Context
It brings the count of AiPs for nuclear commercial ships since June 2026 to three, including the ABS‑approved 15,000 TEU containership concept that was previously reported on 22 July .