22.02.2018  INFORMATION AND PUBLIC RELATIONS ADMINISTRATION ROSENERGOATOM CONCERN JSC

Rosenergoatom: the Baltiysky Zavod successfully completed one of the most important stages before towing the world's first floating NPP to Murmansk

On 22 February, 2018, the specialists of Baltiysky Zavod (BZ) JSC (St. Petersburg) – where mooring tests of the world's only floating nuclear thermal power plant Akademik Lomonosov are being completed –successfully performed the heeling operation.

Heeling is an important stage of commissioning at the main floating power unit (FPU), which is carried out to clarify the design data on the position of the vessel’s center of gravity.

Explaining the essence of the operation, the Deputy Head of the Directorate for Construction and Operation of the FNPP, Dmitriy Alekseenko noted, “All the prototype ships of the series under construction are subjected to the heeling tests. Since some mass redistribution is possible during the construction of a vessel, there is discrepancy between calculated and actual values of the applicates of the center of gravity and the center of the vessel's buoyancy, and the actual value of the metacentric height is determined. In this regard, the specialists carry out refinement of the design data on the position of the vessel’s center of gravity precisely by carrying out the so-called heeling tests.”

The FPU’s heeling was carried out with the help of special cargoes, which were moved from board to board by crane, showing changes in level and the angle of heel. Thus, the specialists of BZ JSC practically determined the coordinates of the vessel's gravity center, which are necessary for calculating the weight load, stability and unsinkability.

Vitaliy Trutnev, the Head of the Directorate for Construction and Operation of the FNPP, said, “To carry out the heeling operations, Baltiysky Zavod JSC has a staff of qualified specialists with many years of experience. They use modern measuring equipment and the techniques developed by the Maritime Register of Shipping with the involvement of scientific organizations.” He also stressed that the FPU heeling operation had gone successful and without complaints.

After the completion of the mooring tests in St. Petersburg and all work on the FPU preparation for transportation, in the spring of 2018 it will be towed to Murmansk on the Atomflot FSUE site. Its reactor will be loaded with nuclear fuel in July 2018, and it will be physically launched in October.

It is to be recalled that the FNPP is designed to replace the retiring capacities of the northernmost in the world Bilibino NPP in Chukotka; that currently generates 80% of electric energy in the isolated Chaun-Bilibino power system. The first unit of BLBNPP is scheduled to stop in 2019, and the Plant will be shut down in 2021. 

The floating power unit (FPU) Akademik Lomonosov of 20870 project is designed for the operation as a part of the Floating Nuclear Power Plant (FNPP). The time-proved technologies of marine (icebreaker) reactor plants are the basis of the project. The FPU has 2 steam-generation units with KLT-40S reactors with the capacity of 35 MW. This main project of the serial mobile movable low-powered power units for supply of the energy to the large industrial enterprises, port cities, complexes for the oil and gas extraction and processing at the sea shelf is created on the basis of the serial power plant system of nuclear icebreakers proved during the long period operation in Arctic. 

The FNPP is designed with the greater safety margin that makes nuclear reactors invincible for tsunami and other natural disasters. In addition the nuclear processes at the ships correspond to all the requirements of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) and do not harm the environment.

The Rosenergoaton Concern (the power division of the Rosatom State Corporation) includes 10 Russian nuclear power stations bearing the status of the Concern’s affiliate companies, along with the vendors catering for the needs of the generation company. All in all, the 10 nuclear power stations operate 35 power blocks* (*excluding the Novovoronezh NPP’s 6th power block being at the pilot production stage): 18 of them operate VVER reactors (12 VVER-1000 power blocks and 5 VVER-440 power blocks of different modifications); 15 of them with channel reactors (11 power blocks with RMBK-1000 reactors, four power blocks with EGP-6 reactors); and 2 power blocks with fast neutron sodium cooling reactors (BN-600 and BN-800).
At the moment, the Rosenergoatom NPPs account for 18.3% of the whole electricity output in the  country.


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