Plant Operation

Russia / Reactor Trials Complete On First Floating Nuclear Station

By David Dalton
24 April 2019

Reactor Trials Complete On First Floating Nuclear Station
The Akademik Lomonosov floating nuclear power station. Photo courtesy Rosenergoatom.
24 Apr (NucNet): Russia’s Akademik Lomonosov floating nuclear power station is one step closer to becoming fully operational after successful trials of its twin reactors, state nuclear operator Rosenergoatom announced today.

“On March 31, 2019 both reactors of the floating power unit have successfully reached 100% power capacity,” a statement said.

“The trial confirmed reliable operation of primary and auxiliary equipment and the automation of technological processes.”

The end of the trial means the facility can be granted its operational licence, which Rosenergoatom said it expects to happen in July.

The Akademik Lomonosov will then be towed from Murmansk, where the trials have been taking place, to its base in Pavek, an Arctic port town in the country’s far northeastern region of Chukotka,

Work is underway in Pavek on coastal infrastructure needed to attach the floating plant to city power and heating grids.

In December, the Akademik Lomonosov is scheduled to begin supplying energy to Pevek.

The Akademik Lomonosov will be the first vessel of a proposed fleet of floating plants with small pressurised water reactor units that can provide energy, heat and desalinated water to remote and arid areas of Russia.

The 21,000-tonne vessel has 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 around 200,000 people.

It will be the first floating nuclear station to be built and deployed since the MH-1A, also known as the Sturgis, in the US in 1967. The Sturgis was towed to the Panama Canal Zone that it supplied with 10 MW of electricity from October 1968 to 1976.

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