Floating nuclear power stations are vessels designed by Rosatom.
They are self-contained, low-capacity, floating nuclear power plants.
The stations are to be mass-produced at ship building facilities
and then towed to the destination ports of the cities and towns
experiencing deficit of power due to industrialization.
In 2000 the project for a floating power station began
when the Ministry for Atomic Energy of the Russian Federation (Rosatom)
chose Severodvinsk in Arkhangelsk Oblast as the construction site.
Construction of the first power station, the Akademik Lomonosov,
started on 15 April 2007 at the Sevmash Submarine-Building Plant in Severodvinsk.
However, in August 2008 construction works were transferred
to the Baltic Shipyard in Saint Petersburg,
which is also responsible for the construction of future vessels.
Akademik Lomonosov was launched on 1 July 2010,[4] at a cost of 6 billion rubles.
The floating nuclear power station is a non-self propelled vessel.
It has length of 144.4 metres, width of 30 metres & height of 10 metres .
The vessel has a displacement of 21,500 tonnes and a crew of 69 people.
Each vessel of this type has two modified KLT-40 naval propulsion reactors
together providing up to 70 MW of electricity,
or cogeneration of electricity and heat for district heating,
enough for a city with a population of 200,000 people.
It could also be modified as a desalination plant producing 240,000 cubic meters of fresh water every day.
Smaller modification of the plant will be fitted with two ABV-6M reactors
with the electrical power around 18 MWe.
The floating power stations need to be refueled every three years
while saving up to 200,000 metric tons of coal and 100,000 tons of fuel oil every year.
The reactors are supposed to have a lifespan of 40 years.
Every 12 years, the whole plant will be towed home
and overhauled at the wharf where it was constructed.
The manufacturer will arrange for the disposal of the nuclear waste
and maintenance is provided by the infrastructure of the Russian nuclear industry.
Thus, virtually no radiation traces are expected at the place where the power station produced its energy.
Environmental groups are concerned that floating plants
will be more vulnerable to accidents and terrorism than land-based stations.
They point to a history of naval and nuclear accidents in Russia and the former Soviet Union,
including the Chernobyl disaster of 1986.
Russia does have 50 years of experience operating a fleet of nuclear-powered icebreakers
that are also used for scientific and Arctic tourism expeditions.
The Russians have commented that a nuclear reactor that sinks,
such as the similar reactor on the submarine in the Kursk submarine disaster,
can be raised and probably put back into operation.
According to Rosatom, 15 countries,
including China, Indonesia, Malaysia, Algeria, Namibia, Cape Verde and Argentina,
have shown interest in hiring such a device.
It has been estimated that 75% of the world’s population live within 100 miles of a port city.
