NEWSMAKERS

Vincent Clerc named new Maersk CEO

After 11 years at the helm of A. P. MØLLER – MÆRSK A/S, SØREN SKOU stepped down as CEO on January 1. He will be succeeded by VINCENT CLERC, currently CEO of the company’s Ocean & Logistic business. He will remain on the company’s executive board.

Eagle Bulk Shipping Inc. announced that FRANK DE COSTANZO will step down as CFO, and then serve as a special advisor to the board through the end of 2023. De Costanzo will be succeeded by COSTA TSOUTSOPLIDES, who currently serves as Eagle’s chief strategy officer. The transition will be effective April 1, 2023. HELENA LENNERSTEDT has been appointed CEO of trim and stabilization system specialist Humphree. She succeeds HANNES NORRGREN who has taken up the role of senior vice president for business unit industrial at Volvo Penta, which holds a majority stake in Humphree.

The Shipbuilders Council of America has named FRANK COLLINS as senior defense advisor, overseeing the organization’s national ship repair and security, as well as industry workforce development and education, initiatives. He has over 36 years of public and private sector experience in the ship repair industry. In changes to the executive board at MAN Energy Solutions SE, effective January 1, DR. GUNNAR STIESCH is to head the technology department, which was previously headed by CEO DR. UWE LAUBER in a dual role. He will also join the board as the new chief technology officer.

Silversea Cruises president and CEO ROBERTO MARTINOLI transitioned to the role of senior advisor to Royal Caribbean Group president and CEO JASON LIBERTY on January 1. BARBARA MUCKERMANN, currently Silversea’s chief commercial officer, will become the cruise brand’s next president and CEO, and will join Royal Caribbean Group’s executive committee.

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Offshore

Insights into the evolving offshore market

The Biden administration’s just announced plans to jump-start U.S. offshore wind will generate a boom in demand for specialized Jones Act-compliant vessels and services. To help give you the insights needed to meet the needs of the new market, we have launched a new weekly newsletter, Marine Log Offshore.

Marine Log will also host a podcast and webcast series focusing on the latest in offshore wind farm development, policy and regulation and the implications for U.S. shipyards and vessel operators.

www.marinelog.com/offshorenewsletter

ThorCon 500 MW MSR power plant in barge hull cutaway view

BV, ThorCon join forces to develop nuclear power barge

WHILE MOLTEN SALT REACTORS HAVE BEEN PROPOSED as offering a future option for marine nuclear propulsion, that seems yet a while away and an earlier application of the technology could well be in power barges. Bureau Veritas (BV) and nuclear power technology developer ThorCon have entered an agreement for the technology qualification and the subsequent development of a 500 MW molten salt nuclear power barge for operations in Indonesia.

The concept developed by ThorCon is a molten salt fission reactor. Unlike current nuclear reactors, the ThorCon reactor would operate at low pressure and use liquid fuel. The liquid fuel enables much higher operating temperatures, leading to greater efficiency while also enabling completely passive safety (requiring no action from the operator nor intervention on the power source to stop the reaction).

ThorCon says that its technology is a straightforward scale-up of the successful United States Oak Ridge National Laboratory Molten Salt Reactor Experiment (MSRE), which concluded in 1969, and that a full-scale 500 MW ThorCon prototype could be operating under test within four years.

In the project underway with BV, the 500 MW fission power plant will be integrated within a floating barge hull and then towed to a shallow water site before being ballasted to rest on the seabed. The technology will then deliver energy to the power grid to meet land-based energy needs. ThorCon plants will be designed to be mass produced, which will support the transition to carbon free and reliable energy.

BV has been selected to support ThorCon through its technology qualification process, both for the nuclear reactor itself and for its encapsulation (enclosed safe compartmentalization allowing the replacement of depleted fuel) and integration with the hull systems.

At this stage, it is anticipated that the Technology Qualification process will take a minimum of three years and if successful, the deployment phase would require an additional two years.

“New technologies, such as molten salt reactors, open opportunities for the deployment of nuclear energy, with power generation in the marine environment being an example,” said Laurent Leblanc, senior vice president technical & operations at Bureau Veritas Marine & Offshore. “This project is very exciting as it can be a steppingstone to other applications such as the generation of hydrogen offshore and even nuclear ship propulsion.”

Dave Devanney, CEO of ThorCon, commented: “ThorCon has developed a fourth-generation advanced nuclear reactor design that solves the most perplexing problem of conventional nuclear power: excessive cost. ThorCon is initially implementing its technology in Southeast Asia where the need for low-cost dispatchable carbon-free energy is urgent. Providing a practical clean solution to Southeast Asia’s growing energy needs will significantly slow global warming and climate change.”

Devanney, who holds a BS and MS in naval architecture, previously served on MIT’s faculty of Ocean Engineering and has a history of designing and managing the fabrication and operation of ships. He conceived the idea of building the MSR, the steam turbine-generator and all associated assets into a large hull which can then be floated to the site where the power is needed.