“Green fuel” for shipping can be produced reliably at low cost using a unique floating nuclear power plant design combined with an ammonia refinery, UK based maritime and technology innovation company Core Power has said.

The startup said a single installation could produce 1.3 million tonnes of 100% green ammonia at a competitive cost.

A floating nuclear refinery would provide a reliable, low-cost fuel supply to all ships trading a particular route and have plenty of green hydrogen-based fuel left over for supply to the inland and coastal markets.

Refineries would be positioned at either end of “green corridors” being proposed in the Clydebank declaration. The declaration, signed at Cop26 in November last year, calls for the creation of zero-emission maritime routes between two or more ports to help the shipping sector decarbonise.