Chernobyl at Sea? Russia Building Floating Nuclear Power Plants | John C.K. Daly
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August 4, 2013
Chernobyl at Sea? Russia Building Floating Nuclear Power
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Posted: 07/15/2013 4:39 pm
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So much for the lessons of Fukushima. Never mind oil spills -- the Russian Federation is preparing an energy initiative that, if it
has problems, will inject nuclear material into the maritime environment.
Speaking to reporters at the 6th International Naval Show in St. Petersburg, Baltiskii Zavod shipyard general director Aleksandr
Voznesenskii said that the Russian Federation's first floating nuclear power plant "should be operational by 2016."
Baltiysky Zavod is Russia's biggest shipbuilding complex. According to Voznesenskii, the "Academician Lomonosov" FNPP will
be the first vessel belonging to the new line of floating nuclear power plants that can provide energy, heat and water to remote
and arid areas of the country, with mass production scheduled for the near future.
The "Academician Lomonosov's" technology is based on the USSR's construction of nuclear-powered icebreakers. The
Russian media is speculating that the FNPPS will first be used in remote areas of the northeastern Arctic Russia and the Far
East, as these regions currently suffer from a lack of energy, slowing their development. Each 21,000-ton vessel will have two
"modified KLT-40 naval propulsion reactors" that will provide up to 70 megawatts of electricity or 300 megawatts of heat,
sufficient for a city with a population of 200,000 people. Additionally, the floating NPPs can provide water desalination services
capable of supplying up to 240,000 cubic meters of fresh water per day.
Perhaps referring to Soviet-era nuclear icebreakers is not such a hot idea, at least for those with historical memories.
Launched in 1957, the Lenin, the USSR's first nuclear powered icebreaker, was powered by three OK-150 reactors. In
February 1965, there was a loss of coolant incident, and some of the fuel elements melted or deformed inside reactor number
two. The debris was removed and stored for two years, and subsequently dumped in Tsivolki Bay near Novaia Zemlia two
years later. The second accident was a cooling system leak, which occurred in 1967, shortly after refueling.
Not a reassuring development for the Soviet Arctic environment.
"Academician Lomonosov's" keel was laid in April 2007 at the Sevmash shipyard in Severodvinsk on the White Sea, but the
project was subsequently transferred to the Baltiskii Zavod. The "Academician Lomonosov's" 21,500-ton hull was subsequently
launched in 2010, although construction work was frozen in mid-2011because of bankruptcy proceedings against the shipyard.
The company was subsequently acquired by state-owned United Shipbuilding Corporation and Rosenergoatom signed a new
contract with the Baltiskii Zavod for the "Academician Lomonosov's" completion. The "Academician Lomonosov" has 69 crew
and specialists. Ominously, the "Academician Lomonosov" has no engines, so it needs to be towed. The vessel is equipped
with two modified KLT-40 reactors.
But, not to worry.
The Baltiskii Zavod shipyard stressed that The "Academician Lomonosov" and its successors are all designed with a safety
margin exceeding all possible threats which makes its nuclear reactors invulnerable to tsunamis and other natural disasters
and the ships meet all the requirements of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) and do not pose a threat to the
environment. The factory further states that 15 nations, including China, Indonesia, Malaysia, Algeria, Namibia and Argentina
have already expressed interest in buying floating nuclear power plant.
The "Academician Lomonosov"will be sent to Vilyuchinsk, Kamchatka for operational testing. Rosatom then aims to construct
seven more FNPPs by 2015, with four of them likely to be located on the northern coast of Siberia's Yakutia. Other Arctic areas
provisionally scheduled to receive FNPPs include port cities along the Russian Federation's arctic coastal Northern Sea Route
and Pevek in Chukotka. An added benefit of the FNPP as envisaged in Moscow is that the provision of nuclear power to the
Arctic and Far East will free up more oil and natural gas for foreign export, allowing the Russian federation to generate
additional hard currency.
Tow cables snap, Arctic conditions can be unpredictable, ships sink. As the ocean is the common heritage of humanity,
perhaps the international community might evince a tad more interest in this project.
Cross posted with Oilprice.com
John C.K Daly is the chief analyst at the energy news site Oilprice.com. Dr. Daly received his Ph.D. in 1986 from the School of
Slavonic and East European Studies, University of London.
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