Russia's first floating nuclear power plant (FNPP) Academik Lomonosov has left Murmansk on tow for its 4,700km voyage to the Arctic port of Pevek where the 144m-long, 30-wide, 5.6m draught barge-type vessel will replace the town's nuclear and thermic power stations.
Two tugs, preceded by Russian nuclear-powered icebreaker Dixon, are towing the decommissioned vessel at 3.5kts-4.5kts to Pevek where it will produce energy for 100,000 people and power to local mining and oil/gas extraction industries for three to five years.
The FNPP under construction since 2008 and towed to Murmansk in 2018 is maintained by Atomflot, a subsidiary of Russia’s national nuclear group Rosatom while Rosatomflot operates its nuclear-powered icebreakers.
The Academik Lomonosov is equipped with two small KLT-40S reactors each of 35MW capacity, a modified version of the KLT-40 reactors that also equip certain Russian nuclear icebreakers and the Sevmorput container carrier icebreaking launched in 1988.
Tags