23.08.2019 COMMUNICATIONS DEPARTMENT OF ROSENERGOATOM

The floating nuclear power station Akademik Lomonosov sets sail from Murmansk to Pevek

On August 23, an official ceremony took place in Murmansk marking the transportation of the unique floating nuclear power station Akademik Lomonosov to its permanent location – the city of Pevek on the Chukotka peninsula, where it will become an inherent element of the floating nuclear heat power station. Alexey Likhachev, the CEO of the Rosatom State Corporation, ordered to start towage of Akademik Lomonosov from Murmansk.

With the help of tugs, the floating power block will travel for over 4,700 kilometers before it reaches the front of its permanent position – the city of Pevek in the Chukotka Autonomous Region. After being connected to the power grid, the power block will operate as a part of the floating nuclear heat power plant supplying the energy to Pevek and the Chukotka Autonomous Region and replacing the capabilities of the Bilibino NPP, which will be fully decommissioned within the next decade.

‘The floating power block is perfectly staffed to maintain the reactor facilities safe during the whole trip and to comply with the navigation regulations in the international waters. All the necessary documents have been properly finalized and submitted to the captain of the Murmansk port, who, in turn, approved the transfer to the international waters. Any non-utilized equipment of the power block has been temporally abandoned and set to the ‘ready for transportation’ mode’, Vitaly Trutnev, the Director of the Floating Nuclear Heat Power Station construction, reported to the management team of the Rosatom State Corporation.

Additionally, the Rosenergoatom Joint-Stock Company as the operator of the facility, received a certificate confirming the entry to the ‘Russian Record Book’ stating that the Akademik Lomonosov floating NPP is the most northern nuclear power plant in the country.

Following its launch, the Floating Nuclear Heat Power Station will become the most northern floating NPP in the world, making the Bilibino NPP a runner-up. Besides, after its launch, the number of nuclear power plants in Russia will be increased from ten to eleven. In the future, it is supposed to replace the generating capacities of the Chaun-Bilibino load center – the Chaun CHPP in the city of Pevek and the Bilibino NPP in the city of Bilibino. Since the floating nuclear heat and power plant is going to be located in Pevek, it will spur the social and economic development of the Chaun municipal district and Chukotka in general. Besides, the plant will become one of the key infrastructure elements within the Northern Sea Route development program as it will facilitate all-year round icebreaker support, which, in turn, will enable major logistics projects around the Pevek port, where the floating power block is going to be located.

The floating nuclear power unit (FPU) (FPU) “Akademik Lomonosov” of project 20870 is the main project of the series of mobile transportable power units of low power. It is designed to work as a part of the Floating Nuclear Thermal Power Plant (FNPP) and is of a new class of power sources on the basis of Russian technologies of nuclear shipbuilding.

The nuclear power plant has two KLT-40S reactor units that can generate up to 70 MW of electric energy and 50 Gcal/hr of heat energy during its normal operation. This is enough to keep the activity of the town populated with 100,000 people. The FPU is the unique and the world’s first project of the mobile transportable power unit of low power. It is designed for the operation at the areas of the Extreme North and the Russian Far East. Its main task is to provide the remote industrial plants, port cities, as well as the offshore gas and oil platforms with electric energy. The FNPP is designed with the great margin of safety that exceeds all possible threats and makes nuclear reactors invincible for tsunamis and other natural disasters. In addition, the nuclear processes at the floating power unit meet all requirements of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) and do not pose any threat to the environment.

The Rosenergoatom Joint-Stock Company is a leading unit of the Electric Power Division of the Rosatom State Corporation. The JSC is the largest generation company in Russia in terms of the electric power output and the world’s 2nd one in terms of the atomic generation capacity. It encompasses all 10 nuclear power plants of Russia that have an affiliate status as well as companies facilitating the operation of the generation unit. All in all, the Russian NPPs operate 35 power blocks with the total installed capacity of 29.1 GW.

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