Lloyd’s Register and Core Power have begun a joint regulatory assessment study to conduct research on the regulatory feasibility and frameworks that need to be established for a nuclear container ship using a Generation IV nuclear power plant.

Lloyds Register, a technical and professional services organisation and a maritime classification society, said in a statement that the study will determine the safety and regulatory considerations for a next-generation nuclear-propelled feeder container ship to undertake cargo operations at a port in Europe. Feeders collect shipping containers from different ports and transport them to central container terminals where they are loaded to bigger vessels.

The joint study, which also involves Danish shipping and logistics company Maersk, will investigate the requirements for updated safety rules and the improved operational and regulatory understanding that is needed for the application of nuclear power in container shipping.