The Department of Transportation's Maritime Administration has signed its second memorandum of cooperation with a United States seaport to advance small modular reactors for commercial vessels, ports, and other maritime assets. The new agreement covers the Gulf coast.
The document pairs the Port of Corpus Christi in Texas with the Maritime Administration to examine small modular reactors, port microgrids, and advanced vessel propulsion systems. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy, Maritime Administration administrator Stephen Carmel, Port of Corpus Christi chief executive Kent Britton, and Port Commission chair Gabe Guerra signed the document at a ceremony the prior week.
Duffy said small modular reactors could reshape the United States maritime sector, lower shipping costs, and strengthen supply chains. The parties will examine maritime energy systems including small modular reactor technologies, resilient port microgrids, shoreside power architecture, infrastructure able to support emerging propulsion concepts, and workforce development.
The Corpus Christi agreement follows the Maritime Administration's first seaport partnership of this type and extends federal maritime nuclear activity to the Gulf of Mexico. The Port of Corpus Christi is among the largest United States ports by tonnage and handles significant crude oil and refined product export volume, which places any change in shoreside power architecture into a high-throughput operating environment.
No timeline for a specific reactor deployment was announced, and the memorandum covers study and evaluation work rather than construction commitments.
Source: ANS Nuclear Newswire - https://www.ans.org/news/2026-08-24/article-8332/corpus-christi-seaport-latest-to-partner-with-marad-on-maritime-reactors/