Page 25: of Marine News Magazine (September 2026)

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One-on-One

Stephen M. Carmel, U.S. Maritime Administrator fundamental thing we have to do is that allows the technology to work in coastal ports, commercial mariners and address the root of everything, which the real world. an Arctic coastline that Carmel believes is cargo,” he said. The lesson is NS Savannah, which America ignores at its peril.

But that does not absolve American Carmel described as an “elegant piece of “If I could advocate for anything,” shipbuilders of responsibility. Carmel engineering but a commercial failure. We Carmel said, “it would be for a big- pushes back against yards that simply don’t want to repeat that,” he said. ger understanding of what the mari- say they need a demand signal before Carmel sees nuclear working in tan- time ecosystem is. It is a system. And investing. “There’s some responsibility dem with arti? cial intelligence, poten- it does no good to treat one part and on the part of the shipyards to get down tially changing ship size, port design, ignore the rest.” a cost curve and demonstrate how,” he economies of scale and the fundamen- There is plenty of reason for skep- said. Government can help through tal architecture of transportation. ticism. The maritime industry has grants, ? nancing and cargo policy, but “SMR has the potential to trans- heard revival speeches before, and the the yard must ultimately have a credible form the way trade happens,” he said. distance between Washington rheto- plan for becoming more productive. “AI will actually execute it.” Together, ric and shipyard orderbooks remains he believes the technologies could considerable.

“shape the way trade works for the Carmel, though, believes the big-

Nuclear: Don’t Miss next 50 to 100 years.” gest barrier may ultimately be one the Next Revolution of attitude. “Our biggest weakness,

While much of Carmel’s agenda our biggest challenge is our own at-

Building the Entire System deals with repairing America’s existing

Perhaps Carmel’s most relevant titude,” he said. “We can revitalize maritime system, his most ambitious idea is aimed squarely at changing its message for the coastal, inland and our shipbuilding industry. We can revitalize our maritime industry, future: commercial nuclear propulsion Great Lakes audience is that the cur- but we’re not going to get there if rent maritime discussion cannot be al- based on small modular reactor tech- lowed to devolve into another narrow we abandon the ? ght before we take nology. “SMR-powered nuclear tech- exercise centered exclusively on large the ? eld.” nology will transform trade and ship-

For America’s commercial maritime ping every bit as much or more than ships and large coastal shipyards.

industry — from the inland rivers to

The industry is a system.

the container did,” Carmel said. “It is

It includes the Gulf Coast yard the Great Lakes, coastal waters and Arc- going to revolutionize the very archi- tic — the opportunity is considerable.

tecture of trade.” MARAD has signed building a towboat, the operator push-

Now comes the dif? cult part: turn- an MOU with the Port of Long Beach ing barges through aging locks, Great to deploy SMR technology for shore Lakes vessels hauling raw materials, ing the talk into steel.

power, which Carmel views as a step- ping stone toward nuclear ship pro- pulsion. More recently, MARAD and

CORE POWER (US) Inc. signed an agreement to accelerate the commer- cial, industrial, and regulatory path- ways for U.S.-? agged nuclear-powered commercial ships.

Importantly, he does not view the primary obstacle as reactor technol- ogy. The challenge is creating the surrounding commercial ecosystem — liability structures, infrastructure, regulation and port acceptance — www.marinelink.com MN 25|