The head of the International Maritime Organisation (IMO) says its work on nuclear in shipping will in part run in parallel with the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) following the launch this month of the Atlas project.

The IAEA’s Atomic Technologies Licensed for Applications at Sea (Atlas) initiative is due to be launched in Washington on August 26-27 with the aim of establishing an international framework to address legal and regulatory complexities to enable the deployment of small modular reactors (SMRs) at sea.

Talking recently at an event in London organised by Core Power, a company aiming to deploy ship-based nuclear energy systems, the IMO’s secretary-general, Arsenio Domínguez, said the organisation looked forward to working together with the IAEA to accelerate the deployment of nuclear in the shipping industry.