Russia launches first floating nuclear reactor amid protests

RUSSIA HAS launched its maiden floating nuclear power station that will be towed over 5,000 km with three tug vessels to its Arctic port of Pevek by late September. The Akademik Lomonosov, which will sail at a speed of 7-9 kmph in good weather, will provide heat and energy to over 10,000 homes and support mining and drilling operations in Russia’s mineral-rich Chukotka region. The country’s nuclear corporation, Rosatom, plans to hook the vessel up to a desalination plant, to produce freshwater. The floating reactor, which took over a decade to be bulit, is 140-metre wide and 30-metre wide and has two KLT-40S nuclear reactors that have a combined capacity of 80 megawatts.

While Rosatom claims the floating reactor— which will retire an ageing nuclear plant and a coal-burning power station—is “virtually unsinkable”, environmental groups have dubbed it as Chernobyl on ice. “Unlike nuclear submarines, the Akademik Lomonosov is a barge without its own propulsion, so it can only float (or sink) and not dive. It can also not dive away from an iceberg or avoid sea-ice by going deep,” says Jan Haverkamp, nuclear expert with Greenpeace, Central and Eastern Europe.

Detractors also fear the move is the first step to nuclearise the Northern Sea Route, which has been recently created due to the melting of ice sheets in the Arctic. They allege that Russia hopes to capitalise on the new trade routes between China and Europe, and the floating reactor is the first step towards it.