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2026 Nuclear Energy Conference & Expo (NECX)
August 24–27, 2026
Dallas, TX|Hilton Anatole
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MIT Maritime Consortium wins ABS approval
Maritime classification and certification organization the American Bureau of Shipping has granted its approval in principle (AIP) for the integration of a nuclear reactor into a cargo vessel propulsion system, as developed by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology Maritime Consortium. This is the first AIP to be granted to a technology developed through the consortium, which includes founding members MIT, HD Korea Shipbuilding & Offshore Engineering, and Capital Maritime Group.
Steven Krahn, Timothy Ault, Bethany Burkhardt (Vanderbilt Univ), Andrew Sowder (EPRI)
Proceedings | 16th International High-Level Radioactive Waste Management Conference (IHLRWM 2017) | Charlotte, NC, April 9-13, 2017 | Pages 217-223
Subject matter expertise has been applied to support a preliminary roadmapping exercise for the near-term implementation of thorium fuel cycles. Background presentations and a panel-facilitated discussion were used as mechanisms to identify and document key implementation challenges in the areas of resources, fuels, reactors, reprocessing/recycle, and safeguards. Participants identified the challenges which they believed should receive the greatest priority in terms of deploying thorium commercially. Reactor-related challenges were deemed to be the most important, followed by those related to reprocessing/recycle and fuels. Individual challenges that were deemed to merit a particularly high priority included fuel qualification, reactor code development and assessment, remote fuel fabrication, and reprocessing flowsheet optimization. These priorities build on those documented in other assessments.