World’s First Floating Nuclear Power Plant To Produce Power by Year End in Far East Russia

April 11, 2019 (EIRNS)—Akademik Lomonosov, the world’s first floating nuclear power station, will begin supplying its first kilowatts to the power grid of Chukotka in 2019, Rosatom CEO Alexey Likhachev said in an interview with TASS at the International Arctic Forum in St. Petersburg this week.

“We still have about 1.5-2 months to test the operation of the power station, and closer to fall, the safety regulations will be sent to Pevek in Chukotka. Before the end of this year Akademik Lomonosov will be connected to the coastal infrastructure and will even start sending [the] first kilowatts to Pevek. We have no doubt that we will do it by the end of the year,”

he said.

In the Arctic port town of Pevek, where the plant will be moored, at times the air temperatures drop to -50˚ Centigrade.

The 70 MW plant, built by the Baltic Shipyard in St. Petersburg, will be handed over to its developer, the state nuclear energy corporation Rosatom, in July, TASS said.

Russia has not made public any large-scale production plan for such floating power plants which could serve as a part of the small modular reactor uptick seen around the world. Small modular reactors, or SMRs, are factory-built units with fewer parts, designed to be installed underground with passive cooling systems that the industry says are inherently safe. These SMRs are now in an advanced stage of development. The worldwide market for such reactors is expected to reach $100 billion by 2035, according to the Nuclear Energy Agency, an intergovernmental organization based in Paris.

(See EIR April 12, 2019: “Recognition of Small Modular Reactors’ Role in the Coming World Is Increasing, But Is that Enough?”)