Britain has an opportunity to place itself as the rule-maker for a future of nuclear powered ships and floating nuclear power plants, a thinktank has suggested. In its latest paper on nuclear issues, free-market thinktank Policy Exchange says the UK 'is uniquely placed to leverage its strategic position as the most important maritime insurance and legal-regulatory power in the world'. 

Shipping was one of the first civilian applications imagined for nuclear power - the US launched the Nuclear Ship Savannah in 1959. However the technology proved uneconomic and impractical apart from in government-funded icebreakers. 

According to the Policy Exchange paper Powering the Future, interest is now reviving - driving by uncertainties over oil prices and the need to cut carbon emissions. Meanwhile several countries are exploring floating nuclear plants as a way to provide power quickly to coastal communities. 

The paper acknowledges that, despite projects such as the 'small modular reactor', the UK is unlikely to win out in the race to manufacture nuclear ships. Rather its comparative advantage lies in removing the 'systemic' regulatory gaps covering maritime nuclear, ranging from licensing to liability for accidents tol decommissioning.

‘Britain’s opportunity lies in positioning itself as the rules, assurance and integration centre for Western civil nuclear maritime,' the authors state. They note that London is the home of the International Maritime Organisation and that some regulatory instruments are already in place. For example the Merchant Shipping (nuclear ships) Regulations 2022 'provide a working domestic framework for commercially operated nuclear-powered ships'. 

Among the reports proposals is the establishment of a 'bilateral regulatory sandbox' with the US. This would 'test licensing routes with selected developers, ports, insurers and operators'. 

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