Russian nuclear group Rosatom has launched the first floating nuclear plant, the 70 MW Akademik Lomonosov project, and sent it on a 5,000 km journey across the Arctic. The project will be moored in Pevek, in the Chukotka region of Siberia, and will replace the 33 MW Bilibino nuclear power plant and the retired Chaunskaya coal-fired power plant. Commercial operations are expected to start by the end of 2019.
The project was launched in 2006 and construction started in 2007 with the aim of commissioning the floating nuclear power plant in 2012. However, the financial difficulties of the shipyard delayed its commissioning. Rosatom bets on the development of small floating nuclear power plants of less than 100 MW based on the icebreakers of the White Sea. The group is promoting the flexibility of this Small and Medium-sized Reactor (SMR) as an alternative to building conventional power plants on permanently frozen ground. Environmental groups have expressed their concerns in terms of radioactive waste and security matters, in the wake of the recent explosion at a military nuclear testing site in Russia's North.
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