Many countries, including China and the United States, had planned to create a marine or floating nuclear reactors, but no one dared. Russia was the first, launching the world’s first floating nuclear power plant, 70-MW “Akademik Lomonosov”, on the Baltic sea. Starting with St. Petersburg, the station will be towed by Norway to Murmansk to load nuclear fuel. From there she will head to the Arctic to warm 100,000 people Pevek (Chukotka Autonomous Okrug), as well as to provide energy to the plant for desalination and oil rigs.
The construction of the vessel began in 2007 and, according to various reports, cost 232 million dollars. The company that owns it, “Rosatom”, originally planned to load the reactor with nuclear fuel in Saint Petersburg and then to tow the ship in Pevek, but Greenpeace and several Baltic States were opposed, so the download will happen in Murmansk.
Greenpeace and other green advocates now don’t think that’s a great idea, especially since the ship cannot move independently and needs to be towed.
“Moving the testing of this “nuclear Titanic” away from the public eye will not make the test less irresponsible,” said nuclear expert of Greenpeace international, Jan Haverkamp. “Nuclear reactors, floating in the Arctic ocean will be shockingly obvious threat to the fragile environment that is already under enormous pressure from climate change”.
The nuclear ship will replace the 48-megawatt nuclear power plant in the region of Pevek. It turned out to be easier to build the ship in St. Petersburg, and then to transport it by sea than to build a new station so far. “Piers, waterworks and other buildings necessary for the mooring of the ship will be ready on arrival “Academician Lomonosov””, said “Rosatom”.
Russia relies heavily on oil in economic terms and, like other countries, has claimed the oil-rich Arctic. Ironically, the burning of fossil fuels exacerbates global warming which leads to melting of Arctic ice, opening new shipping lanes from Russia and makes possible the further development of oil wells in the North.
Russia launched the world’s first floating nuclear power station
Ilya Hel