Trump Administration Explores Nuclear-Powered Commercial Ships
A crude oil tanker docked at the Enterprise Marine Terminal in Freeport, Texas.
Photographer: Mark Felix/BloombergA federal agency wants to learn how nuclear reactors could help the US expand its commercial presence on the high seas.
The Department of Transportation’s maritime agency is seeking input on small modular reactors, a technology that global competitors are developing for “shipyards, ports, insurance regimes, and logistics networks, which places the U.S. at a strategic disadvantage in the absence of domestic SMR development,” according to a notice Wednesday.