Maritime nuclear is maturing. The port interface is unresolved.
TidalCore is an independent concept-stage development study. It is not a licensed reactor design, no application has been submitted to the U.S. NRC, and no approval, review, or endorsement by the NRC, DOE, USCG, IMO, MARAD, any national laboratory, port, or utility is claimed or implied. All figures are modeled design targets subject to independent validation.
Public advanced-reactor programs have clustered around four lanes: utility grid, data centers, defense bases, and remote industrial. As of 2026-08-15, none of the designs reviewed below publicly announced a port-side configuration combining shore power with high-temperature process heat. This table is compiled from public program descriptions and vendor materials, may be incomplete, and is not an assessment of any program’s merit or standing.
Market signals — August 2026
Maritime nuclear is moving from isolated concepts toward deployment frameworks. The items below are dated public actions by third parties, cited to primary sources. None of them involve TidalCore. They are not endorsements, reviews, partnerships, awards, or agreements of any kind with this study.
- IAEA
ATLAS initiative launched at ministerial level
The IAEA's ATLAS initiative addresses the international framework questions raised by nuclear-powered commercial shipping — liability, port acceptance, safeguards, and harmonised oversight. It concerns the enabling framework, not any specific reactor design.
- U.S. MARAD
National maritime small modular reactor initiative launched
MARAD announced a national initiative examining small modular reactors in the maritime sector, establishing a federal workstream around maritime nuclear applications.
- MARAD + Port of Long Beach
Agreement to test nuclear-powered port concepts
The agreement as described publicly covers potential small modular reactors, resilient port microgrids, shoreside power architecture, infrastructure for emerging propulsion concepts, and workforce development — i.e. the shore-side interface, not a vessel programme alone.
- MARAD + Port of Corpus Christi
Second port agreement signed
A second port-level agreement extends the same line of federal enquiry to a major energy-export gateway, indicating the port interface is being examined at more than one site.
- U.S. NRC
10 CFR Part 53 effective and available for applicants
The NRC's technology-inclusive licensing framework, published 2026-03-30, became effective and available to applicants on 2026-04-29. TidalCore has not opened pre-application engagement, submitted an application, or been docketed.
Background on the IAEA programme is published at the ATLAS initiative page (opens in a new tab). Summaries above are our reading of the cited public statements as of 2026-08-27; where a summary and a source differ, the source governs.
Electricity first, heat second.
Electricity-only export (concept target ~5 MWe per module) into a port medium-voltage substation (6.6 kV / 11 kV class) to supply cold-ironing berths and port microgrid loads. The intent is to relieve local grid-upgrade bottlenecks that slow shore-power rollout. Lowest integration complexity; no process-heat users on site.
Only after Phase 1 siting, security and marine-interface protocols exist: route high-temperature heat (concept target ~850 °C) to co-located users such as clean-fuel synthesis or bunkering-related processes. Each heat user adds its own siting, safety and permitting questions.
Both phases are study framing. No port, utility or heat user has been engaged, and no deployment date is claimed.
Berth shore-power demand calculator
Pick a berth mix to estimate simultaneous shore-power peak, the gap above your available substation headroom, and how many concept modules (~5 MWe each, target) would cover it.
Screening estimate only. Assumes all selected berths draw peak at once, average load 60% of peak, and 0.7 t CO₂/MWh for auxiliary diesel. Vessel demands are generic assumptions, not data for any port.
Tbl. 1 · Advanced reactor landscape reviewed 2026-08-15 (≤ 350 MWe, plus one floating-plant study)
| Design | MWe | Target lane | Process heat | Port-side configuration | Provenance |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| NuScale US460 (opens in a new tab) | 77 per module | Utility grid | — | Not announced | REPORTED |
| Kairos KP-FHR (opens in a new tab) | 140 | Utility grid | ~650 °C | Not announced | REPORTED |
| TerraPower Natrium (opens in a new tab) | 345 | Utility grid | ~500 °C | Not announced | REPORTED |
| X-energy Xe-100 (opens in a new tab) | 80 per module | Industrial | ~750 °C | Not announced | REPORTED |
| Oklo Aurora (opens in a new tab) | ~15 | Data centers | — | Not announced | REPORTED |
| Last Energy PWR-20 (opens in a new tab) | 20 | Data centers / industrial | ~300 °C | Not announced | REPORTED |
| Westinghouse eVinci (opens in a new tab)Heat-pipe microreactor in NRC pre-application engagement; no NRC construction permit or operating licence held, as with TidalCore. | ~5 | Remote mining, data centers, defense | ~600 °C reported | Not announced | REPORTED |
| USNC MMR (opens in a new tab) | ~5 | Universities / remote | ~630 °C | Not announced | REPORTED |
| BWXT Project Pele (opens in a new tab) | 1–5 | DoD forward bases | — | Not announced | REPORTED |
| Radiant Kaleidos (opens in a new tab) | ~1.2 | Disaster response / DoD | — | Not announced | REPORTED |
| CORE POWER / BWXT mPower (feasibility study) (opens in a new tab)A feasibility assessment of the BWXT mPower design for shipyard-built floating nuclear power — not a licensed design and not under construction. The studied electrical output is roughly 39× the 5 MWe modelled here, in a different deployment form. | 195 (575 MWth) studied | Shipyard-built floating plants | — | Floating plant, not port-side fixed | REPORTED |
| TidalCore (this concept study)Modelled design targets for a concept-stage study. No hardware, no NRC application, no validated performance. | 5 (15 MWth) | Port shore-power + high-temperature process heat | 850 °C | Proposed port-side lane | TARGET |
Third-party figures carry a REPORTED marker: they are published by the vendor or program and are not independently verified here. TidalCore's own row carries a TARGET marker: modelled design targets for a concept-stage study. Neither TidalCore nor any design listed as in pre-application engagement holds an NRC construction permit or operating licence.
Fig. 3 · Shore-power-equipped berths at California ports
OBSERVEDCounted from the August 2025 edition of the ABS directory of terminal-supplied CARB-approved emission control strategies: the lighter bar is berths listed with one or more shore-power connections (66 berths across the ports shown); the darker bar is berths listed as TBD, planned, or under construction. Entries that are ambiguous in the directory are omitted rather than estimated. This is a count of disclosed berth infrastructure — it is not installed MW, not a forecast, and not a statement of demand for any reactor. Terminal maximum capacities disclosed in the same directory range from 3 MW (Hueneme) to 40 MW (Los Angeles) per terminal.
How we read this
California's At-Berth regulation is the one place where port electrification is publicly enumerated berth by berth, which is why it is used here as an anchor for order-of-magnitude thinking rather than a projection. No TidalCore demand figure is derived from it. Federal port electrification funding context is tracked separately through the MARAD Port Infrastructure Development Program.
Why the gap may exist
- 01Utility-grid SMRs are typically an order of magnitude larger than the terminal capacities disclosed above.
- 02DoD microreactors are sized for transportability rather than continuous industrial duty.
- 03Data-center designs treat heat as waste; the bunker-chemistry lane studied here needs it as a primary product.
- 04Publicly described maritime nuclear work — including the CORE POWER / BWXT mPower feasibility study — has focused on vessels and shipyard-built floating plants rather than fixed port-side plants.
CAAP 2028 shore-power mandate; adjacent to Wilmington ammonia terminal.
Port-level demand estimates aggregate published shore-power infrastructure plans, DNV bunker forecasts, and CAAP / FuelEU / MPA green-corridor commitments. Directional only.