South Korea’s main shipbuilder Samsung Heavy Industries has completed the conceptual design for a compact molten salt reactor (CMSR) power barge, a floating facility for offshore nuclear power plants, and earned basic certification from the American Bureau of Shipping.

Samsung Heavy Industries said the barge will supply electricity and thermal energy generated by CMSR from a site at sea to nearby land.

The company said the barge is less demanding than conventional land-based nuclear plants in terms of site selection and takes as little as two years to build at a lower cost.

Last year Denmark-based reactor technology company Seaborg and SHI signed an agreement to develop floating nuclear power plants based on Seaborg’s compact CMSR.