5 Oct (NucNet): Coastal infrastructure work has begun for the world’s first floating nuclear power plant in the Arctic town of Pavek in Russia’s far northeast Chukotka region, nuclear operator Rosenergoatom said. The plant is scheduled to be commissioned in the autumn of 2019 when it will become the world’s most northerly nuclear power plant. That title currently belongs to the four-unit Bilibino, also in Chukotka. Chukotka governor Roman Kopin said the floating plant will go some way towards replacing generating capacity lost when Bilibino-1 shuts down. The shut-down will be timed to coincide with the startup of the floating plant. Mr Kopin also said the plant will provide power for major mining companies in western Chukotka. In July 2016 testing of the plant, which is being constructed on a purpose-built barge, began at the Baltic Shipyard in St. Petersburg, Rosenergoatom said. Those tests are expected to be completed in October 2017 with the plant ready for transport to Pavek by the end of 2017. The plant, known as ‘Akademik Lomonosov’, will be the first of a proposed fleet of floating plants with small pressurised water reactor units that can provide energy, heat and water to remote and arid areas of Russia. The 21,000-tonne vessel will have two Russian-designed KLT-40S reactor units with an electrical power generating capacity of 35 MW each, sufficient for a city with a population of 200,000 people. The cost of the plant is 30 billion rubles (€428m, $480m), of which 7bn rubles is for offshore infrastructure, Rosenergoatom said.
