Very high interest in course about nuclear power on ships

Photo: Claire Blackett. All photos: Anne Marthe Vestre Berge. 

The GCE Blue Maritime Cluster is arranging a series of courses that has great interest. On Wednesday 5th October, we invited to a course on nuclear power on ships, with a focus on technology and the value chain. This was the course for those who want a deeper technical understanding of how nuclear power can be used in the maritime sector, and what challenges and opportunities this entails.

There was a great deal of interest in this course, so many people seem to find the topic relevant.

The current energy and electricity situation in Europe has created major discussions about how we are to ensure enough cheap, renewable energy. The maritime sector has put its trust in hydrogen - but what about nuclear power?

In the course, we put the spotlight on the technology, and what makes this a favorable zero-emissions solution. We invited knowledgeable presenters to talk about the opportunities and challenges this brings, and had with us Jan Emblemsvåg (NTNU), Astrid Tenden (Ulstein), and Claire Blackett (IFE).

CEO of the cluster, Daniel Garden, sees this subject as part of the clusters strategy, New Blue Deal. 

– The Blue Maritime cluster is committed through our strategy, the New Blue Deal, to persue all options in the race towards zero emission shipping. Besides smarter ship operations, smarter use of energy and reducing energy consumption onboaard, we are looking at all alternatives in ship energy. The scarcity of most of the known alternative fuels inspires us to also be looing at different nuclear technologies, as large ocean going vessels will need vast amounts of energy to keep sailing.