MARITIME WATCH MONITOR — 12 May 2026

Whoever writes the rules on floating nuclear power plants gets to shape who powers the global south's coastline. Russia, which already operates one such plant in its Arctic and is building more — including a model designated for export — wants those rules written at IMO. The United States has filed a paper opposing the move, ahead of the Maritime Safety Committee meeting that opens in London on 13 May. The contest is jurisdictional on the surface and geopolitical underneath: the US wants nuclear regulation kept at IAEA, where Western institutional weight is heavier, and out of IMO, where Russia has equal procedural standing and a head start on the technology.

The bigger picture. Rosatom has managed to dodge many of the sanctions rounds until now. Meanwhile its overseas business has continued to expand: foreign revenue of nearly $18 billion in 2024 against a ten-year foreign order portfolio of $128.8 billion, according to Rosatom's annual report. The expansion has tilted to where political support for sanctions is weakest: Turkey, Belarus, Kyrgyzstan, Serbia and Syria, plus a growing portfolio of African memoranda. Rosatom builds a large part, allegedly up to 90%, of the world's exported nuclear plants. The IMO submission on floating nuclear is the maritime extension of that strategy: legitimise transportable nuclear as a regulated export product, raise access to development-bank financing, and lock in the next generation of coastal customers. The war in Ukraine has reshaped most of Russia's energy exports. It has not reshaped its nuclear ones.

Scrubber rules — the verdict. Seven years of European Commission lobbying for IMO rules on scrubber washwater have collapsed. Binding rules are off the table; fresh proposals will not be considered before next year. Washwater discharges contain heavy metals and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons — with European studies and industry-funded studies disagreeing on what the discharges mean for public health.

Much more — including smaller ferries in line for EU carbon-pricing scope — in Maritime Watch's archive of more than five thousand articles on EU maritime regulatory affairs, tagged by topic, institution, geography and actor, back to 2010 — at maritimewatch.eu. Free trials available on request — editor@maritimewatch.eu.