Samsung Heavy, Seaborg join forces to develop floating nuclear power plants

South Korean shipbuilder Samsung Heavy Industries (SHI) and Seaborg Technologies, a Denmark-based startup focused on nuclear reactor technology, have entered into a partnership to develop floating nuclear power plants.

The duo signed a partnership agreement at an online event last week.

As informed, the floating nuclear power plants will be based on Seaborg’s Compact Molten Salt Reactor (CMSR).

The agreement includes development of hydrogen production plants and ammonia plants, as the CMSR is said to be an ideal power source for the supply of stable, clean, and safe electricity.

“CMSR is a carbon-free energy source that can efficiently respond to climate change issues and is a next-generation technology that meets the vision of Samsung Heavy Industries. In addition, when an abnormal signal occurs inside the reactor, the liquid nuclear fuel, molten salt, is solidified to prevent serious accidents at the source, and provides high safety and high efficiency power and hydrogen production at the same time,” Jintaek Jeong, president of Samsung Heavy Industries, said.

“Through this agreement, We plan to pioneer the CMSR-based floating nuclear power plant market as part of strengthening its future new business opportunity.”

“We are … proud to have formed this partnership with Samsung Heavy Industries, one of the world’s largest and most experienced shipyards. It is another step forward in our quest to introduce a new generation of nuclear reactors that are clean and safe and can be built using industrial technology with all the benefits of scalability, speed, and lower costs,” Troels Schönfeldt, CEO and co-founder of Seaborg, commented.

​The aim of the strategic partnership is to manufacture and sell turn-key power plants, ready to be moored at industrial harbors and connected to the electric grid onshore. ​

The stable production of energy also offers a fundamental basis for production of all Power-2-X fuels, where especially hydrogen and ammonia are considered a future energy source to replace traditional fossil fuels.

The design of the hydrogen, ammonia and power units will be optimized for efficient serial construction at SHI’s shipyards.

The CMSR-based floating nuclear power plant

The floating nuclear power plant comes as a turn-key product, ready to be moored at an industrial harbor.

In the harbor, a transmission cable will be connected to the electric grid onshore. An optional solution is to place a hydrogen or ammonia production plant next to the floating nuclear power plant utilizing the CO2-free fission energy to produce hydrogen and ammonia. ​

The floating nuclear power plant design is modular delivering up to 800 MW-electric for the 24-year lifetime and cost-competitive whether it plugs into the grid in an existing coal port or power production of hydrogen and ammonia, according to Seaborg.

When an abnormal signal occurs inside the reactor, it is designed to solidify molten salt, a liquid nuclear fuel, to prevent serious accidents at the source, providing high safety and high-efficiency power and hydrogen production at the same time.

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