Russia’s first floating nuclear power plant begins tests, but when will it get its uranium?
St Petersburg’s Baltic Shipyard has announced it will begin a series of tests on Russia’s first floating nuclear power plant in a move that could include fueling its two reactors with uranium in the middle of a city of 5 million people.
St Petersburg’s Baltic Shipyard has announced it will begin a series of tests on Russia’s first floating nuclear power plant in a move that could include fueling its two reactors with uranium in the middle of a city of 5 million people.
The prospective fueling operation has drawn the ire of environmental groups and some politicians who say the procedure should be postponed until officials can inform the public about potential dangers. For its part, the city government has not been keen to press Russian state nuclear corporation Rosatom or the Baltic Shipyard over the perceived safety issues.
The Akademic Lomonosov, as the floating plant is called, has been under fitful construction for the last 13 years. Its keel was laid at the Sevmash shipyard near Severodvinsk in 2006 in, but the vessel was moved under hints of scandal to the Baltic Shipyard in 2008.
Since arriving there, it has weathered lawsuits, bankruptcy proceedings, property disputes, budget shortfalls and regular but protracted delays. When it’s towed from St. Petersburg to the Far East port of Pevek on the far eastern Kamchatka Peninsula in November 2019, it will be almost a decade behind schedule and several million of dollars over budget.
When it arrives, it will replace the nuclear power supplied to the remote Chukotka Autonomous Republic by the Bilibino Nuclear Power Plant, which Rosatom plans subsequently to decommission.
Rosenergoatom, Russia’s nuclear utility, announced in May that Akademic Lomonosov would be fueled by December. That hasn’t happened, and the utility has since remained stubbornly silent about when, exactly, the fueling operation will begin.
On Wednesday, the Baltic Shipyard announced in a tweet that the plant was ready for “complex port tests” and that has spurred some to believe the fueling will shortly follow.
