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The Akademik Lomonosov, under construction since 2007, has been launched. The barge,
has a length of 144 metres (472 ft) and width of 30 metres (98 ft). It has a displacement of 21,500 tonnes and a crew of 69 people. For the power generation, it has two modified KLT-40 naval propulsion reactors together providing up to 70 MW of electricity or 300 MW of heat.
According to Engadget:
Starting from St Petersburg, it will be towed around Norway to a Russian town called Murmansk to take on nuclear fuel. From there, it will head to the Arctic to power the oil-industry town of Pevek, along with a desalination plant and drilling rigs. While it's not the first floating nuclear plant -- the US used one from 1968 to 1975 -- it will be the first one in almost 40 years.
Futurism reports that:
Rosatom, the government-owned Russian energy company that developed the Lomonosov, released a statement saying that the floating reactor will be "invincible" to tsunamis and other natural disasters, and that it has met all the requirements of the International Atomic Energy Agency. The company argues that they have rendered Lomonosov harmless to the environment.
A press release from Greenpeace says:
The floating nuclear power plant was initially supposed to be loaded with nuclear fuel and tested on site in the centre of St. Petersburg. However, due to pressure from the Baltic states and a successful petition organised by Greenpeace Russia, Rosatom, the state-controlled nuclear giant that owns and operates the floating nuclear power plant, decided on 21 July 2017 to move loading and testing to Murmansk.
A 2013 RT article said:
The Akademik Lomonosov is to become the spearhead of a series of floating nuclear power plants, which Russia plans to put into mass-production.
[...]15 countries, including China, Indonesia, Malaysia, Algeria, Namibia, Cape Verde and Argentina, have previously expressed interest in acquiring such power stations.
The Times of London has an infographic that can be viewed by non-subscribers.
Science Magazine has a loosely related article, Floating Nuclear Plants: Power from the Assembly Line; the first page can be viewed by non-subscribers.
(Score: 2) by Osamabobama on Wednesday May 02 2018, @08:15PM
As I understand it, the reactor will only be 'bobbing around' the Arctic when it's en route to its installed location. That will happen after initial testing in St. Petersburg, so there will be some fission products, but mostly the fuel will be less radioactive uranium. I submit that the 'shockingly obvious threat' will be small, even if obvious. Once the barge reaches its Murmansk (which is a bit inland), I expect it to stop bobbing.
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