UK-based nuclear start-up Core Power has hit a significant funding milestone as it seeks to demonstrate the use of its small modular reactors for shipping.
The Mikal Boe-led company has raised $100m in its third funding round, partly by issuing new shares to Japanese companies that are now owners of 22% of the equity.
About 13 Japanese companies have put $80m into Core Power, including shipbuilders Onomichi Dockyard and Imabari Shipbuilding.
Other participants include some of the best-known shipowners, operators, trading houses and shipping investors.
The first experimental reactor, which is now being built at Idaho National Laboratory under a US government scheme, is due in 2026.
The first marine deployment is targeted for 2032.
“We want to keep up with the world’s latest technology trends,” an executive from Onomichi Dockyard, which decided to invest JPY 1bn ($7m), told the Nikkei daily.
The International Chamber of Shipping (ICS) has this month published a survey that found 12 of 130 C-suite execs interviewed see a new generation of nuclear-powered ships being viable within the next 10 years.
The ICS said respondents can foresee their use in the mid and even short term, “although there continues to be significant resistance with a large set of respondents believing that they would never use this power source”.
Boe told TradeWinds: “When we first started discussions with senior maritime leaders about a new nuclear power programme for shipping six years ago, less than 3% were favourable to the idea, and saw the solution as a long-term potential, deep into the 2040s.”
Household names stepping up
“That has gradually but decisively changed over time, and we now see a growing number of household names from our industry stepping up,” he added. “It’s now being funded by the industry, for the industry, and not by Silicon Valley or Wall Street, and I think that matters.”
Floating new-nuclear energy can power the production of vital green fuels, at either end of green corridors and offshore major port areas, Boe argues.
“We can also see a growing interest in new-nuclear powered large ships with the combination of higher speeds, true zero emissions and safe port calls bringing economic and competitive benefits to stakeholders,” he added.
The new molten salt reactors are smaller, more efficient, safer and potentially less expensive to build, Core Power says.
The system uses a liquid fuel with a high boiling point that can operate at normal pressure to generate electricity.
The reactors have an output of 300,000 kilowatts each, and three to four units would be equivalent to a conventional nuclear power plant, which has about 1m kilowatts.
The company is working with US-based TerraPower, which is part-owned by Microsoft founder Bill Gates, US utility Southern Company and Orano of France, a nuclear fuel cycle firm.
