§ Market

Twelve credible NRC-tracked designs. Zero target the port.

The advanced reactor market has clustered around four lanes: utility grid, data centers, defense bases, and remote industrial. The maritime port — with its unique combination of shore-power demand, high-temperature process heat for bunker-fuel synthesis, and a secure controlled-access perimeter — has no purpose-built design in the NRC pipeline today.

Tbl. 1 · Advanced reactor competitive landscape (≤ 350 MWe)

Design	MWe	Target lane	Process heat	Maritime fit
NuScale US460	77	Utility grid	—	No
Kairos KP-FHR	140	Utility grid	650 °C	No
TerraPower Natrium	345	Utility grid	500 °C	No
X-energy Xe-100	80	Industrial	750 °C	No
Oklo Aurora	15	Data centers	—	No
Last Energy PWR-20	20	Data centers / industrial	300 °C	No
Westinghouse eVinci	5	Remote mining	600 °C	No
USNC MMR	5	Universities / remote	630 °C	No
BWXT Project Pele	1.5	DoD forward bases	—	No
Radiant Kaleidos	1.2	Disaster / DoD	—	No
CORE Power (concept)	—	Marine propulsion	—	Partial / no NRC
TidalCore (this study)	5	Port shore-power + bunker NH₃	850 °C	Yes

Fig. 3 · Estimated cumulative microreactor-addressable port demand

Estimated combined electrical + thermal microreactor demand at the world's 50 largest decarbonizing container ports, derived from IMO MEPC 80 trajectory and DNV / Lloyd's Register alternative-fuels port-readiness projections. Order-of-magnitude only.

Why the gap exists

01Utility-grid SMRs are 10–60× too large for a single port berth.
02DoD microreactors are sized for air-mobile transport, not continuous industrial duty.
03Data-center designs treat heat as waste; bunker chemistry needs it as the primary product.
04Marine-propulsion concepts (CORE Power) lack a US licensing pathway and target ships, not ports.