Developers are reviving plans for what would be the world’s first floating city, a nuclear-powered, nearly mile-long vessel designed to carry up to 80,000 people in continuous circumnavigation of the globe.

The proposed ship, dubbed Freedom Ship, would stretch roughly 4,500 feet long, 800 feet wide and rise 30 decks above the waterline, dwarfing every cruise ship currently in operation. The estimated price tag is £12 billion, or about $14 billion, according to Freedom Cruise Line International, the company behind the project.

If built, the vessel would house 50,000 permanent residents, accommodate another 10,000 cruisers and day visitors, and rely on 20,000 crew members. At 2.3 million gross tons, it would be roughly nine times the size of Royal Caribbean’s Icon of the Seas, currently the world’s largest cruise ship, which measures 1,198 feet and carries about 7,600 passengers.

Roger Gooch, the chief executive of Freedom Cruise Line International, told the Telegraph that the company was confident the project could be built but that financing remained the central hurdle.

“We are firmly convinced that we can achieve this, but the crucial factor remains funding,” Gooch said.

The Freedom Ship concept was first introduced in the 1990s by Florida engineer Norman Nixon. The 2008 financial crisis stalled the project, and it has spent the intervening decades on the drawing board. Advances in modular construction and small modular nuclear reactor technology have pushed the proposal back into public discussion.

Under the current plan, construction would begin in Indonesia once financing is secured. The hull would be manufactured in sections and assembled offshore. The ship would travel at roughly seven knots and circle the globe every two to three years.

Developers have positioned nuclear propulsion as a selling point on environmental grounds. Backers argue that nuclear power would provide enough energy to sustain a self-contained community at sea while reducing carbon emissions compared with conventional cruise vessels powered by heavy fuel oil.

“We want to prove we’re a green environment and we’re doing good for society in the world,” Gooch said.

The renderings released by the company describe a self-contained municipal infrastructure rather than a traditional cruise experience. Plans call for a 15,000-seat sports stadium, a research hospital, a concert hall, two museums, a convention center, a water park, multiple hotels and roughly 3,000 commercial units for independent businesses. More than 100 acres of open outdoor space, parks and bicycle paths are included, along with an onboard light rail system to move residents from one end of the structure to the other.

Because the ship would remain offshore rather than dock at small ports, developers say it would not overwhelm coastal infrastructure and would instead draw visitors out to its facilities at sea.

The proposal faces significant obstacles beyond financing. Maritime regulators have not previously certified a civilian nuclear-powered passenger vessel of this scale, and the legal questions surrounding a permanent floating community of 80,000 people, including citizenship, taxation and jurisdiction in international waters, remain unresolved.

(YWN World Headquarters – NYC)