Norway's Research Council Funds Nuclear-Propulsion R&D

A Norwegian research funding institute has decided to provide early-stage support to a nuclear propulsion startup featuring some of the best-known names in Scandinavian maritime technology.

The Research Council of Norway is giving $2 million in grant support to the Marine Nuclear Propulsion System (dubbed MarNuPS) project, led by the Norwegian subsidiary of American reactor company Emerald Nuclear.

Emerald Nuclear is a microreactor startup aimed specifically at ship and barge-based applications. It is run by a nuclear engineer with aerospace experience, and has a former Naval Reactors officer on its board. Like many modern microreactor designs, its "GEM" concept would run on TRISO coated uranium fuel pellets, with refueling via reactor swap-out at five to 15-year intervals. Its business plan is based on reactor leasing rather than sales, the firm told Alaska's KNOM earlier this year.

Other partners in the project include OSV operator Island Offshore, Emerald's first commercial customer; Fincantieri-owned specialty shipbuilder VARD and Vard Electro; NTNU, a leading center of shipping-technology research; Imperial College London; and machinery-monitoring firm Maskindynamikk.

This story was originally published by The Maritime Executive. Read the full story at The Maritime Executive →