Samsung Heavy Industries is steadily carving out a position in the offshore nuclear energy market. The South Korean shipbuilder has announced that floating small modular reactors (FSMRs) — floating platforms capable of hosting one or more compact modular reactors to generate electricity at sea — are among its emerging strategic markets. The news comes alongside a licensing agreement with GasEntec for natural gas liquefaction technology, and sheds light on where SHI intends to position itself in the years ahead.
SHI’s FSMR program is anything but vague. In July 2026, Samsung Heavy Industries signed an agreement with U.S. engineering firm Sargent & Lundy to develop a standardized FSMR platform capable of accommodating multiple reactor designs. The stated goal is to offer flexibility to operators: those who have chosen a specific SMR design will not be locked into a dedicated structure. The agreement was signed in Washington, D.C., with the participation of Kim Kyung-hee, head of SHI’s Future Business division, and Siben Sulka, Chief Nuclear Officer at Sargent & Lundy.
On the technical side, SHI has already secured an approval in principle from the American Bureau of Shipping for the conceptual design of its FSMR, configured to host two SMART 100 reactors — the integrated modular reactor developed by the Korea Atomic Energy Research Institute and certified by South Korea’s nuclear regulatory authority in September 2024. The reactors are mounted on an offshore platform built at the shipyard, significantly reducing on-site construction work. This approach cuts both time and costs compared to traditional land-based construction, and opens the door to powering coastal cities, remote communities, and offshore industrial installations.
SHI’s strategy must be read within a broader context. The shipbuilder is focused on high-value vessels, eco-friendly designs, autonomous marine systems, and digitalization. Floating reactors and offshore data centers represent the frontier of this plan. Nor is this an isolated bet: Samsung has already explored the use of molten salt reactors for floating platforms in collaboration with UK-based Core Power, with projects targeting capacities of up to 800 MWe. The partnership with Sargent & Lundy — one of the most established nuclear design firms in the United States — gives SHI direct access to the American market, which has been cited as an explicit target of the agreement.
The next step is certification. SHI has stated its intention to align the FSMR design with evolving international and U.S. regulatory standards. The project is still at the conceptual design stage, but the sequence of agreements — first ABS, then Sargent & Lundy — points to a methodical progression toward commercialization. If the regulatory pathway proceeds smoothly, SHI’s first FSMR platforms could enter the construction phase before the end of the decade, with potential applications ranging from powering ports and maritime corridors to supplying energy for remote industrial uses and nuclear-powered offshore data centers.
