Russia Just Launched the World's Only Floating Nuclear Power Plant.
Nuclear plants are dangerous when thing go wrong, and countries have always sought out offshore options to place them away from populated areas. Now Russia is the second one to actually come out and launch a floating nuclear plant ever in history.
It is the only operating off-shore nuclear power plant of its kind once it starts up, too, according to Rosatom's press release. It will also be the first one since the Sturgis floating nuclear power plant used by the US in Panama from 1968 to 1975, as Ars Technica pointed out.
The plant itself left St. Petersburg, Russia on Saturday, April 28, as it heads towards the Baltic Sea towed by two boats. From there it will loop around the northern waters of Norway until finally reaching the Russian town of Murmansk.
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At that point, the boats will refuel and then head on to the town of Pevek, where it will reach the seaport roughly by the summer of 2019.
There, the plant will undergo one critical stage on its way to being operational — the dangerous task of loading it with nuclear fuel. It will also be taking on the operating crew at that point as well.
The original plan was to tow the plant around with nuclear fuel already loaded as it leaves St. Petersburg, as Engadget noted. The plan was changed shortly after Greenpeace along with several Baltic countries in the area mounted a protest.
Now, the Academik Lomonosov will be loaded and test-fired in Murmansk instead.
Environmental groups, including Greenpeace, is still not totally onboard the idea, however. They are especially concerned that the floating nuclear plant has no motive power of its own and relies on two ships to move it around.
"Moving the testing of this 'nuclear Titanic' away from the public eye will not make [the testing less irresponsible]," Jan Haverkamp, nuclear expert for Greenpeace, said.
"Nuclear reactors bobbing around the Arctic Ocean will pose a shockingly obvious threat to a fragile environment which is already under enormous pressure from climate change," Haverkamp added.
Indeed, the passage to the north of Norway and the prospect of stationing a floating nuclear power plant in Murmansk were only made possible by climate change, as well. As it is, the floating plant has enough capacity to power a city of around 100,000 residents.
Aside from the environmental impact of adding a power plant to the arctic waters, critics are also concerned that in the case of extreme weather, a disaster could cause a widespread contamination of the area.
Meanwhile, Rosatom is pressing on ahead with preparations of the site. "All necessary construction works to create on-shore infrastructure are underway in Pevek. The pier, hydraulic engineering structures, and other buildings, crucial for the mooring of FPU [floating power unit] and operation of a FNPP [floating nuclear power plant] will be ready to use upon Akademik Lomonosov arrival," the company said in its statement.
