Russia launches world’s first floating nuclear power plant

Russia has launched the world’s first floating nuclear power plant, the 70-megawatt Academik Lomonosov, on the Baltic Sea. Starting from St. Petersberg, it will be towed around Norway to a Russian town called Murmansk to take on nuclear fuel.

From there, it will head to the Arctic to power the 100,000-person city of Pevek, along with a desalination plant and oil rigs.

Construction on the ship began way back in 2007, and it reportedly cost $232 million to build. The state-run company that owns it, Rosatom, originally planned to load the reactor with nuclear fuel at St. Petersberg, then send the ship directly to Pevek.

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But Greenpeace and several Baltic states mounted a successful petition, so the firm decided to load and test it in Murmansk, instead.

Greenpeace and other environmental groups still don’t think this is a great idea, though, especially since the ship must be towed and can’t move on its own power.

“Moving the testing of this ‘nuclear Titanic’ away from the public eye will not make [the testing less irresponsible],” said Greenpeace nuclear expert Jan Haverkamp. “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.”

 

 

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