HWBRIEF
A non binding framework plugs the private startup into a federal plan to field nuclear powered cargo ships against China's shipbuilding lead, with no funding or commercial precedent yet attached.
The US Maritime Administration (MARAD) signed a non-binding Memorandum of Cooperation on Monday with Core Power, a private maritime-nuclear developer, naming the startup as the lead integrator for federal efforts to put small nuclear reactors on commercial cargo ships.
The framework sits inside the federal Maritime Action Plan, which is tied to the Trump administration's April 2025 directive to rebuild US maritime dominance. MARAD's May Request for Information on a "system-centric" small modular reactor for marine use had warned that US rivals are already integrating nuclear propulsion into shipyards, ports, and insurance regimes.
Core Power founder and CEO Mikal Bøe argues the US can lean on "seven decades of nuclear-at-sea experience" and proposes Japan or Korea build conventional hulls while the US handles nuclear-grade integration. The company is publicly targeting first construction starts from 2028. "We are not asking for another study," Bøe said.
The MoU is a cooperation framework, not a procurement contract: no funding mechanism, regulatory pathway, fuel plan, or port infrastructure has been announced, and the 2028 target is Core Power's own ambition rather than a government milestone. The US has never operated a commercial nuclear merchant fleet; Russia's icebreaker fleet is the only real civilian precedent, and China's lead in commercial shipbuilding is structural, with nuclear propulsion as one input rather than the whole race.