The First Floating Nuclear Power Station

The USS Sturgis, a converted WWII Liberty Ship fitted with the MH-1A reactor by the US Army, became the world's first floating nuclear power station, going critical in January 1967. Built by Martin Marietta, the 10-megawatt pressurized water reactor first supplied power to Fort Belvoir before its most notable deployment: helping resolve a 1968 water shortage crisis at the Panama Canal by supplying electricity to the Canal Zone alongside a diesel barge, freeing water for the canal locks. The ship was retired in 1976, stored for decades, and finally decommissioned between 2014 and 2019. Since then, only Russia's Akademik Lomonosov barge has followed a similar concept.

Source: https://hackaday.com/2026/09/21/the-first-floating-nuclear-power-station. 8 Sync News only summarizes and links out; content copyright belongs to the authors and original sources.