This comes just a week after the ATLAS initiative was launched, which aims to explore the use of small modular reactors for commercial shipping—a push for a maritime reality that India has also joined.

This comes just a week after the ATLAS initiative was launched, which aims to explore the use of small modular reactors for commercial shipping—a push for a maritime reality that India has also joined.

This comes just a week after the ATLAS initiative was launched, which aims to explore the use of small modular reactors for commercial shipping—a push for a maritime reality that India has also joined.

A new shade of maritime corridors is trying to find a foothold in the sector amid green corridors becoming all the rage due to a global push for decarbonisation. 

Meet the Pink Corridor project, which is currently evaluating what a nuclear (hence the colour pink) container shipping corridor across the Atlantic Ocean could shape up to be.

Led by the famed maritime classification society Lloyd's Register (LR) and AP Moller-Maersk, in association with the ports of Charleston (US) and Felixstowe (UK), the project will look at ship security, safeguards, cyber resilience, emergency measures, insurance regimes, and the alignment of the proposed corridor with global maritime and nuclear policies.

The project falls under a broader framework of maritime development under the US-UK Technology Prosperity Deal. In fact, one of the stated aims of this deal is to explore civil maritime nuclear applications, including the potential creation of a shipping corridor between them.

The outcomes of the initial phase of the Pink Corridor project will decide how a potential follow-up phase will turn out.

Notably, this project will build on a 2024 regulatory assessment study by LR and UK-based CORE POWER, formalised by Maersk as a joint development project to better decarbonise commercial shipping using nuclear power.

"The partnership brings together industry-leading players across shipping, ports and classification, reflecting the growing interest in nuclear technology as a route to more sustainable maritime operations," explained Nick Gross, Global Containerships Segment Director at LR.

CORE POWER then signed an agreement with the US Maritime Administration (MARAD) to cooperate on what could become a lineup of 50 nuclear-powered merchant vessels, with construction set to begin in 2028.

China is also making big moves in this field, with the state-owned Jiangnan Shipyard announcing in 2025 that it was already designing the world's first nuclear-powered container ship, with construction on the 25,000-TEU vessel to begin within a decade.

Where does India come in?

Just a week ago, the United Nations' nuclear watchdog, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), on August 26 launched the Atomic Technologies Licensed for Applications at Sea (ATLAS) initiative, which seeks to explore the use of small modular reactors for commercial shipping.

India is said to have joined the nuclear commercial shipping push, with Indian Atomic Energy Commission Chairman Ajit Kumar Mohanty attending the Washington event.

He had also pointed out how the ATLAS initiative is perfectly in sync with the country's own aims for the nuclear industry under the Nuclear Energy Mission unveiled in 2025, which includes the deployment of at least five Bharat Small Modular Reactors (BSMRs) by 2033, as well as reaching 100 gigawatt (GW) of nuclear power capacity by 2047.

The ATLAS initiative is also looking at floating nuclear power plants, which would serve as versatile electricity sources for coastal or remote communities, or even industries.

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