Russia seeking customers for floating nuclear plants, report says

December 15, 2020, 9:33AMANS Nuclear Cafe

Technicians loading the first reactor aboard the Akademik Lomonosov, Russia's floating nuclear power plant. Credit: Rosatom.

The Bellona news site is reporting that Rosatom is marketing its floating nuclear power plants to foreign countries. The news item noted on December 14 that Russia’s Tass newswire had published the information, citing government statements. Rosatom is Russia’s state nuclear corporation.

“Rosatom has made proposals for the installation of floating units to a number of foreign countries,” Yury Trutnev, a deputy prime minister and presidential representative to Russia’s Far Eastern Federal District, said earlier this month, according to Tass. “It’s clear that one unit is not enough for us to sell such modules. Their future replication would open a possibility for Russia to open a market niche where there currently is no one.”

The exact number of proposed customers is unknown, according to Bellona. Rosatom’s Akademik Lomonosov, Russia’s first floating nuclear power plant, began producing electricity for a remote Siberian port a year ago this month. It entered full commercial service in May.

The Akademik Lomonosov has two KLT-40S reactors, Bellona reported. It is a non-self-propelled power barge that was named after academician Mikhail Lomonosov. The barge is docked at the harbor of the town of Pevek, supplying 70 megawatts to the regional Chaun-Bilibino power system in the Chukotka region, across the Bering Strait from Alaska.

The Akademik Lomonosov is reportedly the world’s northernmost nuclear power plant.


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