Plant Operation

Akademik Lomonosov / Russia Approves Plans For Floating Plant Infrastructure

By David Dalton
20 April 2020

Facility has already produced first electricity for grid
Russia Approves Plans For Floating Plant Infrastructure
The Akademik Lomonosov floating nucler power plant. Photo courtesy Rosatom.
Russia’s Glavgosexpertiza, the Ministry of Construction’s expert organisation for the appraisal of design documentation and engineering survey results, has approved documents relating to the construction of coastal and hydraulic structures and infrastructure facilities to support the country’s first Akademik Lomonosov floating nuclear power plant at Pevek in the autonomous far east region of Chukotka.

The documents detail plans for the construction of buildings and structures on the banks of the Pevek Strait for storage of specialised equipment need for the physical protection of Akademik Lomonosov facilities.

The plans include shelter for boats, booms and equipment including cars, all-terrain vehicles and snowmobiles. A stationary pier will be built for the secure mooring of the ship.

Plans also include the construction of a pipeline trestle, a lighting mast and a slipway. There will be platforms for vehicles, and external water, heat and electricity networks and communication networks.

The developer is nuclear nuclear operator Rosenergoatom and the general designer is Atomenergo, both subsidiaries of state nuclear corporation Rosatom.

Rosenergoatom said in January that the Akademik Lomonosov, which comprises two 32-MW KLT-40S reactors, had produced its first electricity for Chukotka’s independent grid.

Glavgosexpertiza said the Akademik Lomonosov will become the basis of the energy infrastructure of the Chaun-Bilibino industrial hub, which has rich reserves of gold, silver, copper and other non-ferrous metals. It will help the region reduce its dependence on imported fossil fuels, reduce tariffs for electric and thermal energy, and improve social conditions and the environmental situation in the region, a statement said.

Rosenergoatom also said the facility will also be used to replace capacity lost when the Bilibino nuclear station is permanently shut down at the beginning of the next decade.

Bilibino – the smallest and the northernmost operating nuclear power station in the world – has three commercial EGP-6 graphite-moderated, water-cooled reactor units of 11 MW (net) each. They came online in 1975, 1976 and 1977. An identical unit, Bilibino-1, was permanently shut down in January 2019.

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