Russian floating nuclear power station

Technical characteristics

The floating nuclear power station is a non-self propelled vessel. It has length of 144.4 metres (474 ft), width of 30 metres (98 ft), height of 10 metres (33 ft), and draught of 5.6 metres (18 ft). The vessel has a displacement of 21,500 tonnes and a crew of 69 people.

Each vessel of this type has two modified KLT-40 naval propulsion reactors together providing up to 70 MW of electricity or 300 MW of heat, or cogeneration of electricity and heat for district heating, enough for a city with a population of 200,000 people. Because of its ability to float and be assembled in extreme weather conditions, it can provide heat and power to areas that do not have easy access to these amenities because of their geographic location. It could also be modified as a desalination plant producing 240,000 m³ (8,500,000 cu ft) of fresh water a day. Smaller modification of the plant can be fitted with two ABV-6M reactors with the electrical power around 18 MWe (megawatts of electricity).

The much larger VBER-300 917 MW thermal or 325 MWe and the slightly larger RITM-200 55 MWe reactors have both been considered as a potential energy source for these floating nuclear power stations. The station also incorporates a floating unit (FPU), waterworks, guaranteeing solid establishment, separation FPU and transmitting created power and heat on the banks, inland offices for accepting and transmitting the produced power to outside systems for circulation to purchasers.

Objectives

The primary goal of the venture is to give increasing energy needs of the area, effective energy investigation and advancement of gold and rest of the different fields in Chaun-Bilibino energy arrangement of the industrial group, guaranteeing adjustment of taxes for electric and heat energy for the populace and modern customers, and the making of a solid energy base for monetary and social improvement of the locale.

Contractors

The hull and sections of vessels are built by the Baltic Shipyard in Saint Petersburg and Wison (Nantong) Heavy Industry in China. Reactors are designed by OKBM Afrikantov and assembled by Nizhniy Novgorod Research and Development Institute Atomenergoproekt (both part of Atomenergoprom). The reactor vessels are produced by Izhorskiye Zavody. Kaluga Turbine Plant supplies the turbo-generators.

Fueling

The floating power stations need to be refueled every three years while saving up to 200,000 metric tons of coal and 100,000 tons of fuel oil a year. The reactors are supposed to have a lifespan of 40 years. Every 12 years, the whole plant will be towed home and overhauled at the wharf where it was constructed. The manufacturer will arrange for the disposal of the nuclear waste and maintenance is provided by the infrastructure of the Russian nuclear industry. Thus, virtually no radiation traces are expected at the place where the power station produced its energy.

Safety

The safety systems of the KLT-40S are designed according to the reactor design itself, physical successive systems of protection and containment, self-activating active and passive safety systems, self-diagnostic automatic systems, reliable diagnostics relating to equipment and systems status, and provisioned methods regarding accident control. Additionally, the safety systems on board operate independently of the plant’s power supply.

Environmental groups and citizens are concerned that floating plants will be more vulnerable to accidents, natural disasters specific to oceans, and terrorism than land-based stations. They point to a history of naval and nuclear accidents in Russia and the former Soviet Union, including the Chernobyl disaster of 1986. Russia does have 50 years of experience operating a fleet of nuclear-powered icebreakers that are also used for scientific and Arctic tourism expeditions. However earlier incidents (Lenin, 1957, and Taymyr, 2011) involving radioactive leaking from such vessels also contribute to safety concerns for FNPPs. Commercialization of floating nuclear power plants in the United States have failed due to high costs and safety concerns.

Environmental concerns around the health and safety of the project have arisen. Radioactive steam may be produced, negatively impacting people living nearby. Earthquake activity is common in the area and there are fears that a tsunami wave could damage the facility and release radioactive substances and waste. Being on the water exposes it to natural forces, according to environmental groups.

Environmental impacts

Both coastal and floating nuclear powerplants may result in similar consequences for the ocean environments. Although the surrounding seawall could provide an artificial reef that is an advantageous environment for some marine life forms, there are potential negative effects on animal and plant life near-shore (for coastal plants) or further offshore (with deep-water floating plants). Intrusion of marine organisms into power station systems during water entrainment could reduce species variety and number of individual organisms. The thermal impact of water discharge from stations may permanently change the area's marine ecosystem, with, for example, cooler-water species unable to maintain populations, and non-local, warmer-water species, colonizing the vicinity. While power plants may instigate such environmental transformations, the thermal plumes caused by the warmed-water discharge are narrow, so their effect is geographically restricted. Winter shutdown of the plant may result in fish kills from the thermal shock. However, this can be mitigated in stations with multiple units, by avoiding simultaneous shutdowns. By sequentially turning off only one unit at a time, the water temperature variation is minimized. These problems are shared by all thermal power plants.

The breakwater will constitute an artificial island of appreciable size.

Locations

Floating nuclear power stations are planned to be used mainly in the Russian Arctic. Five of these are planned to be used by Gazprom for offshore oil and gas field development and for operations on the Kola and Yamal peninsulas. Other locations include Dudinka on the Taymyr Peninsula, Vilyuchinsk on the Kamchatka Peninsula and Pevek on the Chukchi Peninsula. In 2007, Rosatom signed an agreement with the Sakha Republic to build a floating plant for its northern parts, using smaller ABV reactors.

According to Rosatom, 15 countries, including China, Indonesia, Malaysia, Algeria, Sudan, Namibia, Cape Verde, and Argentina, have shown interest in hiring such a device. It has been estimated that 75% of the world's population live within 100 miles of a port city.