Trump Administration seeks information to relaunch nuclear-powered commercial shipping

Nuclear powered commercial shipping

On May 7, 2026, MARAD published an RFI in the Federal Register in which MARAD seeks information from the public to support the development of U.S.-built, scalable, and repeatable small modular reactors (SMR) for commercial ocean shipping.

Maritime nuclear propulsion has a long history in the United States that is primarily focused on military deployments. The U.S. Navy has safely deployed over 200 nuclear-powered vessels since the U.S. Nautilus operated on nuclear power in 1955.

Despite the stellar safety record and the efficiency of the Navy nuclear fleet, the U.S. has produced only one nuclear powered ship designed for cargo or passenger transit. The nuclear ship (N.S.) Savannah was the U.S. Government’s first and, until now, only foray into nuclear powered merchant shipping. It was specially authorized by an act of Congress in 1956 as a joint Maritime Administration-Atomic Energy Commission experimental ship. Public L. 84-848. The N.S. Savannah only operated from 1962 until 1970 and did not become a replicable standard of nuclear-powered shipping for the commercial maritime industry.

The current RFI comes at a time of peaked interest in SMR development and the various use cases to which the technology can be deployed. There is a growing population of developers who are intent on converting the U.S. commercial shipping fleet to nuclear power. This RFI reflects the urgency of this market sector and the interest in moving beyond the experimental approach taken with the N.S. Savannah and into a fleet-level deployment model. The RFI also supports and is consistent with President Trump’s Restoring America’s Maritime Dominance executive order (EO 14269) and America’s Maritime Action Plan (Feb. 2026).

What information is MARAD seeking?

1. A repeatable and scalable approach

MARAD’s RFI wants stakeholders to provide information on SMR concepts as reference architecture for a nuclear-powered fleet. The MARAD RFI emphasizes the need for a standardized, repeatable and scalable SMR design approach. Such an approach will mirror the success of the U.S. Navy, which has long preferred repetition and iteration rather than bespoke design in its fleet, and contrasts sharply with the terrestrial reactor market where bespoke designs are the norm. Modular design and production are key concepts for rebuilding U.S. shipbuilding capacity, consistent with America’s Maritime Action Plan, and MARAD is seeking to understand how the industry will approach this problem.

2. Regulatory alignment to simplify deployment

The RFI seeks suggestions on ways to streamline regulatory authorities across government and to sequence licensing, inspection, and operational oversight, to prevent regulatory fragmentation from becoming a barrier to commercialization. MARAD tacitly acknowledges that regulatory fragmentation is a potential problem and names the four agencies who have jurisdiction over all or some aspects of nuclear commercial shipping: the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, the Department of Energy, the Department of War, and the Department of Homeland Security, including the Coast Guard. The RFI specifically requests recommendations for stakeholders to propose changes to law, regulation and sub-regulatory guidance that would help ease the deployment pathway of and provide regulatory consistency for SMR development.

3. Ports

MARAD’s RFI seeks clarity on the different ways that port-based deployments will impact the regulatory framework for commercial nuclear shipping. It requests that stakeholders provide insight into how to structure inspection regimes, vessel classification rules, and international norms for nuclear-powered commercial shipping both domestically and internationally. It also seeks information on port access for nuclear powered commercial ships and standards alignment prior to port-based deployment. The RFI recognizes that port regulation could be as much of a barrier to the industry as vessel regulation, and asks how to resolve both barriers.

4. Liability and insurance constraints

Understanding that government indemnification is unavailable for commercial nuclear shipping without statutory revision, the RFI asks for information about how to address liability and insurability. The allocation of nuclear liability risk and the availability of insurance is a key concern with few options in the market. The information from the RFI can help inform the government and the insurance market on how to design a system to account for fleetwide nuclear shipping.

What does this mean for industry?

MARAD’s RFI signals an important inflection point: for the first time since the N.S. Savannah, the U.S. government is starting a conversation about the market viability of nuclear-powered commercial shipping.

Three implications stand out:

• Market architecture is being defined. Interested parties should engage now to help shape the allocation of risk, licensing pathways, and commercial structures.
• System-level solutions will be favored. The U.S. Government favors repeatability over bespoke systems. Developers and operators should expect a move toward platform-based deployment, standardization, and interoperability.
• The Administration is intent on streamlining regulatory oversight. The RFI mentions four discrete agencies that have regulatory influence over nuclear-powered commercial shipping. MARAD is seeking suggestions to ensure consistency across regulators. Given maritime nuclear’s history of interagency collaboration (Navy Nuclear Propulsion Program is a dual-hatted DOE/U.S. Navy program and the N.S. Savannah was a joint program of the Maritime Commission and the Atomic Energy Commission), it seems likely a joint regulatory effort is under consideration.

At the same time, core challenges persist around liability frameworks, insurability, infrastructure, workforce availability, and international acceptance, which will ultimately determine whether projects are financeable at scale.

Looking ahead: Considerations for stakeholders

The MARAD RFI represents a meaningful step toward enabling nuclear-powered commercial shipping in the United States, but much is still unresolved.

Industry participants should consider engaging in the RFI process to:

• Make the case for deployment and standardization of SMRs to power the commercial shipping fleet.
• Help define and make proposals to change the statutory, regulatory, and commercial frameworks.
• Provide commercial information about port access and shipyard operations that will be necessary to evaluate infrastructure capacity to support nuclear-powered commercial shipping.
• Give information and data necessary to help set up the business case for insurance of nuclear-powered commercial shipping. Consider potential creative opportunities for demonstrating financial responsibility.

All comments are due on or before August 5, 2026.

How Hogan Lovells can help

Hogan Lovells regularly works with MARAD, DOT, NRC and other U.S. agencies on these topics and will continue to track developments related to this opportunity to provide advice to our clients including ocean shipping companies, shipbuilders, port authorities, advanced reactor developers, investors, and technology partners who are engaged in this market. Please reach out should you have questions.

Authored by Dan Stenger, Joanne Rotondi, Ed Fishman, Stewart Forbes, and Valerie Marshall.