A Nuclear Odyssey at Sea

Jamie Kwong and Toby Dalton | Carnegie Endowment for International Peace

Governments, international organizations, and industry stakeholders are descending on Washington this week for the official launch of ATLAS. The aptly named initiative—Atomic Technologies Licensed for Applications at Sea—aims to create a road map for the deployment of nuclear power in commercial maritime applications, namely floating nuclear power plants (FNPPs) and nuclear-propelled commercial ships. It comes as the shipping industry and other sectors are becoming increasingly interested in the economic, environmental, and technological potential of nuclear energy to usher in a more cost-effective, more fuel-efficient, and more sustainable era of maritime operations. But before any new nuclear vessels hit the water, the stakeholders now gathering for the ATLAS launch will need to face several epic challenges.

US plans nuclear-powered merchant fleet to challenge China’s shipbuilding dominance

Jamie Smyth and Alice Hancock | The Financial Times

Donald Trump’s administration is teaming up with a British company to help it build a fleet of nuclear-powered merchant vessels to challenge China’s growing dominance of commercial shipbuilding, a top US official has said… Nuclear propulsion is a technology that has been used for decades in military submarines because it provides unlimited underwater endurance, eliminates the need for oxygen, and delivers high sustained speeds. But until recently it has struggled to attract interest from the commercial sector because of high building costs, port bans and complex international liability laws.

(2nd LD) Top diplomats of S. Korea, U.S. stress 'close' communication on N. Korea's nuclear issue

Song Sang-ho | Yonhap News

The top diplomats of South Korea and the United States have agreed to continue "close" communication and cooperation to address North Korea's nuclear issue and promote peace on the Korean Peninsula during a call, Seoul's foreign ministry said Tuesday… In a press release on their talks, the ministry did not mention whether the chief diplomats reaffirmed their commitment to North Korea's denuclearization despite the two sides' emphasis on the importance of cooperation on North Korea's nuclear quandary.

Data centres drive Ireland to reopen nuclear power debate

Jude Webber | The Financial Times

Rising electricity consumption by Ireland’s insatiable data centres has prompted the government to do something that has been unthinkable for decades: reignite a debate about nuclear power… But unlike France and the UK, nuclear power has never been an option in Ireland. Several high-profile protests beginning in 1978 succeeded in killing plans for a nuclear plant on the south-east coast. Bans against the technology since 1999 have ensured things stay that way.

Hungary Paks nuclear plant could operate at full capacity by Wednesday, PM Magyar says

Reuters

Hungary's Paks nuclear plant restarted its reactor 3 late on Saturday and the facility ​could be operating at full capacity by Wednesday, ‌a day or two sooner than expected, Prime Minister Peter Magyar said on Sunday. The 2-gigawatt plant, which produces nearly ​half of Hungary's electricity, was forced to cut ​output to just over 10% earlier this ⁠month, barely escaping a full shutdown due to a historic ​drought and record-low water levels on the Danube.

Why a Saudi Nuclear Program Is Not Worth Ending US Nonproliferation Policy

Andrea Stricker | The National Interest

After years of intense diplomacy in the 1990s, the United States finally persuaded Russia and China to halt further transfers of sensitive uranium enrichment and plutonium reprocessing technologies to states like Iran and Pakistan… A generation later, America itself is poised to break that hard-won precedent by authorizing a uranium enrichment plant on Saudi soil. What follows is predictable: Moscow and Beijing, no longer constrained by American example, will begin competing to offer enrichment and reprocessing to prospective customers as sweeteners in their own commercial nuclear deals. The carefully constructed barrier against the spread of nuclear weapons fuel will collapse, and several new states will edge closer to obtaining the bomb.