A meeting of senior leaders from maritime, the nuclear industry and international regulation has highlighted the absence of an established international framework tailored to civil nuclear applications at sea.

Participants at the Lloyds Register nuclear roundtable in Athens, Greece, highlighted the mounting interest in nuclear energy for the maritime industry from governments, including the government of Greece, and operators looking for scalable, zero-emission propulsion options.

But participants stressed that regulation must move in parallel with technology development, rather than waiting for mature designs to emerge.