Russian Floating Nuclear Plant Heads Out to Sea

On April 28th 2018, in St Petersburg, Russian state-owned nuclear power company Rosatom launched Akademik Lomonosov, a nuclear power plant on a barge that will be towed through the Baltic sea and into the Arctic ocean, eventually to be moored offshore and provide power to the northern Russian city of Pevek, on the Kamchatka peninsular. The plant is not fueled at this point, fueling will take place when it reaches its destination.

A press release from the company states:

“PEB is the unique and first in the world project of a mobile transportable power unit of low power. It is designed for operation in the Far North and Far East regions and its main goal is to provide power to remote industrial enterprises, port cities, and gas and oil platforms located on the high seas. The FPPP is designed with a large margin of safety, which exceeds all possible threats and makes nuclear reactors invulnerable to tsunamis and other natural disasters. In addition, the nuclear processes on the floating power unit meet all the requirements of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) and do not threaten the environment.”

According to an article on The Drive website here, Rosatom states that there has been interest from numerous countries to purchase similar plants in the future.