Not One ... a Fleet!
Post
17/04/07, BBC, Russia making floating atom plant, (Source).
30/11/05, Debka File, Abrupt sacking of Russian nuclear energy minister, (Source).
17/04/07, Tatyana Sinitsyna, Floating NPP will be safer, (Source).
17/04/07, WNN, Russian floating reactor construction starts, (Source).
05/04/07, WNN, Two floating nuclear plants for Chukotka, (Source).
17/04/07, BBC, Russia making floating atom plant, (Back).
The floating plant will have a 70-megawatt reactor.
Russia has started building the world's first floating nuclear plant, designed to provide power for remote areas.
The plant, costing £100m ($200m), is due to be launched in 2010.
Russia's atomic energy ministry (Minatom) announced that the base unit for the plant had been prepared in Severodvinsk, in Russia's Arctic north.
The plant - to be called Akademik Lomonosov - will supply electricity to Sevmash, a shipbuilding firm which produces nuclear-powered submarines.
Export potential
Russia's nuclear energy producer Rosenergoatom is financing 80% of the project and Sevmash the other 20%.
According to Minatom, the plant will have an operational life of 12-15 years and has a high level of radiation security.
A senior engineer involved in the project, Oleg Samoilov, said that "in the worst-case accident, with damage to the radioactive zone, civilian protection measures will not be needed beyond a one-kilometre radius around the plant".
Minatom says such plants could be widely used in energy-poor regions and could also power water purification installations.
"There are risks of the unit itself sinking, there are risks in towing the units to where they need to be," Charles Digges, Bellona environmental pressure group.
Russia hopes that Pacific island states will want to buy the technology. According to Rosenergoatom, more than 12 countries have expressed interest in the project.
Russia plans to build seven floating nuclear plants by 2015.
Environmentalists have been highly critical of the proposals.
Charles Digges, editor of the Norwegian-based Bellona website, told the Associated Press that floating nuclear plants were "absolutely unsafe - inherently so".
"There are risks of the unit itself sinking, there are risks in towing the units to where they need to be," he said.
Russia currently generates up to 17% of its electricity from 31 reactors at 10 sites, and President Vladimir Putin has said he would like to increase the figure to a quarter.
30/11/05, Debka File, Abrupt sacking of Russian nuclear energy minister, (Back).
Does the abrupt sacking of Russian nuclear energy minister signal a turnaround in Moscow`s policy on Iran’s nuclear program?
Washington and Jerusalem are disturbed by the abrupt firing of Alexander Rumyantsev as head of the Russian Agency for Atomic Energy, Rosatom, a job he held four years. Russian president Vladimir Putin offered no explanation for his replacement by a former Russian prime minister, Sergei Kiriyenko, who has no experience in the nuclear energy field.
Sources in Washington and Moscow report the sacked minister was trusted by the US and Israeli governments to stand firm against letting Iran have Russian technological assistance for building a nuclear weapon. Rumyantsev, who is Jewish, was also trusted by Israeli officials concerned with Iran’s nuclear activities, after Iran was obliged on his initiative to return the fuel rods from the Russian-built atomic reactor in Bushehr.
US and Israeli officials fear that Rumyantsev’s dismissal means that Putin is reviewing Moscow’s nuclear relations with Tehran and may be contemplating putting them on a less restrictive basis. So far this is only surmise.
Also Wednesday, November 30, AMAN chief, Aharon Zeevi warned: “If by the end of March 2006, the international community has still not managed to apply the brakes to Iran’s race for a nuclear bomb, it might as well give up on its diplomatic efforts and admit failure.”
Moscow sources report that Tehran took steps in recent months to damage Rumyantsev’s reputation. Russian auditors discovered that over a long period the Iranians had tendered inflated invoices for Bushehr projects that were never executed. Moscow refunded the sums to avoid a crisis, but found it was incurring losses. Tehran then promised the minister to compensate the Russians for their losses with fresh contracts for building additional reactors in Iran. The Iranians reneged on this promise and instead negotiated the contracts with China.
17/04/07, Tatyana Sinitsyna, Floating NPP will be safer, (Back).
MOSCOW. (RIA Novosti commentator Tatyana Sinitsyna) - "This plant has several layers of protection, which means that it will be much safer than its land equivalents," said Sergei Kiriyenko, head of the Federal Agency for Nuclear Power, speaking at a ceremony of laying down the world's first floating nuclear power plant (FNPP).
The plant will be built at the Sevmash shipyard, the core of the Russian Center for Nuclear Shipbuilding, in Severodvinsk, Arkhangelsk Region.
To add weight to his words, the head of the agency cited the sad tragedy of the nuclear submarine "Kursk," which sank in the Barents Sea in 2000. A powerful explosion de-energized the ship and filled it with water. But the nuclear reactor withstood the shock and shut down automatically, obeying the command of its safety system. After the submarine was raised, specialists found an intact nuclear reactor ready to operate.
There is really hardly a test more devastating and convincing than exposure to an extreme situation. Such power units, which have years of service on warships and ice-breakers, will be used on floating nuclear power plants.
The first such plant will be named "Akademik Lomonosov" after the famed Russian scholar and scientist Mikhail Lomonosov (1711-1765). Its construction is scheduled to be completed by 2010. The vessel will drop anchor in the White Sea, close to Sevmash. The plant will supply power for Sevmash's production and municipal needs.
The project is estimated at $200 million, but it will recoup itself in seven years with an expected service life of 38 years. This one, Kiriyenko said, is a pilot project. Later on, such plants will be less expensive and quicker to build, the construction period taking only three years. The new plant looks like a miniature of its land cousin, and is about 1/15th as powerful. The 70 MW plant will power the infrastructure of Sevmash, which has invested $20 million in the project, and sell one fifth of the electricity elsewhere.
FNPPs have attractive prospects. They are the dream of power-hungry regions and large industrial enterprises that require an uninterrupted power supply when no centralized source is available. Built on a shipbuilding yard, a floating plant is towed by water to its operation site. By 2015, Russia plans to build seven FNPPs for its domestic needs. Priority sites are Chukotka, Kamchatka, Yakutia and Taimyr, in the Far East of the country and in Siberia.
It is the transportability of the new Russian technological wonder and its ability to feel at home in any coastal area that is attracting the attention of other countries - maritime and island-based. According to the Federal Agency for Nuclear Power, 12 countries have already expressed interest, including Indonesia, Malaysia, and China. The plant to be built in Severodvinsk will also serve as a working model to be visited and examined by potential exporters.
What is its principle of operation? A site suitable for mooring is chosen in coastal waters, near the client to be supplied with electricity (town, village, industrial facility). Then the power unit arrives, towed by a tug. It mounts two reactors and has working and accommodation space. A minimum of infrastructure is established beforehand on the shore, complete with transformer units, pumps, etc. The plant is capable of supplying the power needs of a city with a population of 200,000. When converted to sea water distillation, it can produce 240,000 cubic meters of drinking water daily. The FNPP saves up to 200,000 tons of coal or 100,000 tons of fuel oil a year. The infrastructure of the Russian nuclear complex backs up its life cycle in full.
Any description of a nuclear facility is taken with a grain of salt. The critics of the project, for example, say that it can damage the environment in case of a natural disaster. But the site is picked up following close monitoring, observing fixed rules - no one is going to anchor the plant in a place with a high risk of tsunamis. "There will be no floating Chernobyl," Kiriyenko assured. "The guarantee is the tremendous expertise built up by the Russian nuclear ice-breaking fleet with its 7,000 reactor-years."
Plant designers say the philosophy incorporated in the design points to high dependability and freedom from radioactive effects on the environment. When the plant weighs anchor to sail elsewhere, it leaves the place absolutely unpolluted.
A terrorist threat has also been taken care of. The latest scientific and technological devices have been employed to stop unauthorized access to fissile materials aboard the vessel. Staff are identified by fingerprints and retinal analysis. The system is also protected against underwater sabotage. Rigid safeguards exist against external physical threats. A hypothetical aircraft falling on the vessel would have no chance of breaking the reactor unit.
It is important to keep in mind that Russia will be selling only the plant's output - electricity - not the vessel itself. This settles all issues connected with the spread of nuclear technologies. A floating nuclear power plant flying the Russian flag is towed to a country that has signed the contract, drops anchor in a suitable place and gets in touch with local engineering services ashore. Then the reactors are switched on, and the customer is supplied with electricity.
17/04/07, WNN, Russian floating reactor construction starts, (Back).
The keel was laid for the world's first floating nuclear power plant at the Sevmash shipyard on 15 April. The Akademik Lomonosov will house two 35 MW KLT-40S nuclear reactors, similar to those used in Russia's nuclear powered ice breakers, and two generators, and will be capable of supplying a city of 200,000 people.
After decades of discussion, work has reached the first landmark stage in the development of floating nuclear power plants. Destined for the Archangelsk industrial shipyard in northwest Russia the Akademik Lomonosov will supply 70 MWe from two KLT-40S naval-developed reactors. It is estimated that the plant will cost around six billion roubles ($232 million) to build.
A ceremony was held at the Sevmash shipyard at which first Vice Premier Sergey Ivanov, the head of the Federal Atomic Energy Agency (Rosatom), Sergey Kiriyenko, and academic Yevgeny Velikhov fixed a memorable plaque on the body of the future plant.
Later, a memorandum was signed by Sevmash and Rosenergoatom (Russia's nuclear operator) for up to six more of the floating plants between 2008 and 2016. Two are envisaged for Pevek on Russia's Chukotka peninsula on the East Siberian Sea, while others are thought to be suitable for providing power to Gazprom's Arctic oil extraction operations. These uses would help Russia to achieve President Vladimir Putin's goal of having nuclear generate 25% the country's electricity by 2030.
The floating units could also be deployed in other countries for electricity and seawater desalination, operating for 15 years before returning to Russia for defuelling and maintenance. Other countries including China, Indonesia, Malaysia, Algeria, Namibia and Argentina are reported to have expressed in buying the plants, which could also be used for desalination.
Responding to safety concerns from the advent of a new type of nuclear installation, Kiriyenko cited the 2000 Kursk disaster as evidence of Russian naval nuclear excellence: "After the boat was raised, specialists proved that the reactor could be put into service that very moment."
"If today we are building low-capacity floating nuclear power plants based on 70 MWe ice-breaker reactors, tomorrow, we will start building medium-capacity plants based on unique technologies designed for nuclear submarines, ie 300-400 MWe" Kiriyenko said.
Some commentators, however, have expressed misgivings about the safety of the floating plants, particularly their potential vulnerability to accidents and terrorism.
05/04/07, WNN, Two floating nuclear plants for Chukotka, (Back).
[Rosatom, 4 April] Rosenergoatom plans to launch a floating nuclear power plant by 2012 near the town of Pevek on Russia's Chukotka peninsula on the East Siberian Sea, with a second to follow in 2019, according to the company's director general, Sergey Obozov. The 70 MWe plants will replace capacity lost with the closure of the Chaun thermal power plant, which will have been decommissioned by that time. Russia's first floating nuclear plant will be launched by 2010 near Severodvinsk in Arkhangelsk region. China has signed an $86.5 million deal to build the body of the first plant, while Russia will be responsible for the power block. The floating plants have a service life of 40-50 years, require a crew of 69 people and generate enough heat and electricity to power a city of some 500,000 people.
(Back)
30/11/05, Debka File, Abrupt sacking of Russian nuclear energy minister, (Source).
17/04/07, Tatyana Sinitsyna, Floating NPP will be safer, (Source).
17/04/07, WNN, Russian floating reactor construction starts, (Source).
05/04/07, WNN, Two floating nuclear plants for Chukotka, (Source).
17/04/07, BBC, Russia making floating atom plant, (Back).
The floating plant will have a 70-megawatt reactor.
Russia has started building the world's first floating nuclear plant, designed to provide power for remote areas.
The plant, costing £100m ($200m), is due to be launched in 2010.
Russia's atomic energy ministry (Minatom) announced that the base unit for the plant had been prepared in Severodvinsk, in Russia's Arctic north.
The plant - to be called Akademik Lomonosov - will supply electricity to Sevmash, a shipbuilding firm which produces nuclear-powered submarines.
Export potential
Russia's nuclear energy producer Rosenergoatom is financing 80% of the project and Sevmash the other 20%.
According to Minatom, the plant will have an operational life of 12-15 years and has a high level of radiation security.
A senior engineer involved in the project, Oleg Samoilov, said that "in the worst-case accident, with damage to the radioactive zone, civilian protection measures will not be needed beyond a one-kilometre radius around the plant".
Minatom says such plants could be widely used in energy-poor regions and could also power water purification installations.
"There are risks of the unit itself sinking, there are risks in towing the units to where they need to be," Charles Digges, Bellona environmental pressure group.
Russia hopes that Pacific island states will want to buy the technology. According to Rosenergoatom, more than 12 countries have expressed interest in the project.
Russia plans to build seven floating nuclear plants by 2015.
Environmentalists have been highly critical of the proposals.
Charles Digges, editor of the Norwegian-based Bellona website, told the Associated Press that floating nuclear plants were "absolutely unsafe - inherently so".
"There are risks of the unit itself sinking, there are risks in towing the units to where they need to be," he said.
Russia currently generates up to 17% of its electricity from 31 reactors at 10 sites, and President Vladimir Putin has said he would like to increase the figure to a quarter.
30/11/05, Debka File, Abrupt sacking of Russian nuclear energy minister, (Back).
Does the abrupt sacking of Russian nuclear energy minister signal a turnaround in Moscow`s policy on Iran’s nuclear program?
Washington and Jerusalem are disturbed by the abrupt firing of Alexander Rumyantsev as head of the Russian Agency for Atomic Energy, Rosatom, a job he held four years. Russian president Vladimir Putin offered no explanation for his replacement by a former Russian prime minister, Sergei Kiriyenko, who has no experience in the nuclear energy field.
Sources in Washington and Moscow report the sacked minister was trusted by the US and Israeli governments to stand firm against letting Iran have Russian technological assistance for building a nuclear weapon. Rumyantsev, who is Jewish, was also trusted by Israeli officials concerned with Iran’s nuclear activities, after Iran was obliged on his initiative to return the fuel rods from the Russian-built atomic reactor in Bushehr.
US and Israeli officials fear that Rumyantsev’s dismissal means that Putin is reviewing Moscow’s nuclear relations with Tehran and may be contemplating putting them on a less restrictive basis. So far this is only surmise.
Also Wednesday, November 30, AMAN chief, Aharon Zeevi warned: “If by the end of March 2006, the international community has still not managed to apply the brakes to Iran’s race for a nuclear bomb, it might as well give up on its diplomatic efforts and admit failure.”
Moscow sources report that Tehran took steps in recent months to damage Rumyantsev’s reputation. Russian auditors discovered that over a long period the Iranians had tendered inflated invoices for Bushehr projects that were never executed. Moscow refunded the sums to avoid a crisis, but found it was incurring losses. Tehran then promised the minister to compensate the Russians for their losses with fresh contracts for building additional reactors in Iran. The Iranians reneged on this promise and instead negotiated the contracts with China.
17/04/07, Tatyana Sinitsyna, Floating NPP will be safer, (Back).
MOSCOW. (RIA Novosti commentator Tatyana Sinitsyna) - "This plant has several layers of protection, which means that it will be much safer than its land equivalents," said Sergei Kiriyenko, head of the Federal Agency for Nuclear Power, speaking at a ceremony of laying down the world's first floating nuclear power plant (FNPP).
The plant will be built at the Sevmash shipyard, the core of the Russian Center for Nuclear Shipbuilding, in Severodvinsk, Arkhangelsk Region.
To add weight to his words, the head of the agency cited the sad tragedy of the nuclear submarine "Kursk," which sank in the Barents Sea in 2000. A powerful explosion de-energized the ship and filled it with water. But the nuclear reactor withstood the shock and shut down automatically, obeying the command of its safety system. After the submarine was raised, specialists found an intact nuclear reactor ready to operate.
There is really hardly a test more devastating and convincing than exposure to an extreme situation. Such power units, which have years of service on warships and ice-breakers, will be used on floating nuclear power plants.
The first such plant will be named "Akademik Lomonosov" after the famed Russian scholar and scientist Mikhail Lomonosov (1711-1765). Its construction is scheduled to be completed by 2010. The vessel will drop anchor in the White Sea, close to Sevmash. The plant will supply power for Sevmash's production and municipal needs.
The project is estimated at $200 million, but it will recoup itself in seven years with an expected service life of 38 years. This one, Kiriyenko said, is a pilot project. Later on, such plants will be less expensive and quicker to build, the construction period taking only three years. The new plant looks like a miniature of its land cousin, and is about 1/15th as powerful. The 70 MW plant will power the infrastructure of Sevmash, which has invested $20 million in the project, and sell one fifth of the electricity elsewhere.
FNPPs have attractive prospects. They are the dream of power-hungry regions and large industrial enterprises that require an uninterrupted power supply when no centralized source is available. Built on a shipbuilding yard, a floating plant is towed by water to its operation site. By 2015, Russia plans to build seven FNPPs for its domestic needs. Priority sites are Chukotka, Kamchatka, Yakutia and Taimyr, in the Far East of the country and in Siberia.
It is the transportability of the new Russian technological wonder and its ability to feel at home in any coastal area that is attracting the attention of other countries - maritime and island-based. According to the Federal Agency for Nuclear Power, 12 countries have already expressed interest, including Indonesia, Malaysia, and China. The plant to be built in Severodvinsk will also serve as a working model to be visited and examined by potential exporters.
What is its principle of operation? A site suitable for mooring is chosen in coastal waters, near the client to be supplied with electricity (town, village, industrial facility). Then the power unit arrives, towed by a tug. It mounts two reactors and has working and accommodation space. A minimum of infrastructure is established beforehand on the shore, complete with transformer units, pumps, etc. The plant is capable of supplying the power needs of a city with a population of 200,000. When converted to sea water distillation, it can produce 240,000 cubic meters of drinking water daily. The FNPP saves up to 200,000 tons of coal or 100,000 tons of fuel oil a year. The infrastructure of the Russian nuclear complex backs up its life cycle in full.
Any description of a nuclear facility is taken with a grain of salt. The critics of the project, for example, say that it can damage the environment in case of a natural disaster. But the site is picked up following close monitoring, observing fixed rules - no one is going to anchor the plant in a place with a high risk of tsunamis. "There will be no floating Chernobyl," Kiriyenko assured. "The guarantee is the tremendous expertise built up by the Russian nuclear ice-breaking fleet with its 7,000 reactor-years."
Plant designers say the philosophy incorporated in the design points to high dependability and freedom from radioactive effects on the environment. When the plant weighs anchor to sail elsewhere, it leaves the place absolutely unpolluted.
A terrorist threat has also been taken care of. The latest scientific and technological devices have been employed to stop unauthorized access to fissile materials aboard the vessel. Staff are identified by fingerprints and retinal analysis. The system is also protected against underwater sabotage. Rigid safeguards exist against external physical threats. A hypothetical aircraft falling on the vessel would have no chance of breaking the reactor unit.
It is important to keep in mind that Russia will be selling only the plant's output - electricity - not the vessel itself. This settles all issues connected with the spread of nuclear technologies. A floating nuclear power plant flying the Russian flag is towed to a country that has signed the contract, drops anchor in a suitable place and gets in touch with local engineering services ashore. Then the reactors are switched on, and the customer is supplied with electricity.
17/04/07, WNN, Russian floating reactor construction starts, (Back).
The keel was laid for the world's first floating nuclear power plant at the Sevmash shipyard on 15 April. The Akademik Lomonosov will house two 35 MW KLT-40S nuclear reactors, similar to those used in Russia's nuclear powered ice breakers, and two generators, and will be capable of supplying a city of 200,000 people.
After decades of discussion, work has reached the first landmark stage in the development of floating nuclear power plants. Destined for the Archangelsk industrial shipyard in northwest Russia the Akademik Lomonosov will supply 70 MWe from two KLT-40S naval-developed reactors. It is estimated that the plant will cost around six billion roubles ($232 million) to build.
A ceremony was held at the Sevmash shipyard at which first Vice Premier Sergey Ivanov, the head of the Federal Atomic Energy Agency (Rosatom), Sergey Kiriyenko, and academic Yevgeny Velikhov fixed a memorable plaque on the body of the future plant.
Later, a memorandum was signed by Sevmash and Rosenergoatom (Russia's nuclear operator) for up to six more of the floating plants between 2008 and 2016. Two are envisaged for Pevek on Russia's Chukotka peninsula on the East Siberian Sea, while others are thought to be suitable for providing power to Gazprom's Arctic oil extraction operations. These uses would help Russia to achieve President Vladimir Putin's goal of having nuclear generate 25% the country's electricity by 2030.
The floating units could also be deployed in other countries for electricity and seawater desalination, operating for 15 years before returning to Russia for defuelling and maintenance. Other countries including China, Indonesia, Malaysia, Algeria, Namibia and Argentina are reported to have expressed in buying the plants, which could also be used for desalination.
Responding to safety concerns from the advent of a new type of nuclear installation, Kiriyenko cited the 2000 Kursk disaster as evidence of Russian naval nuclear excellence: "After the boat was raised, specialists proved that the reactor could be put into service that very moment."
"If today we are building low-capacity floating nuclear power plants based on 70 MWe ice-breaker reactors, tomorrow, we will start building medium-capacity plants based on unique technologies designed for nuclear submarines, ie 300-400 MWe" Kiriyenko said.
Some commentators, however, have expressed misgivings about the safety of the floating plants, particularly their potential vulnerability to accidents and terrorism.
05/04/07, WNN, Two floating nuclear plants for Chukotka, (Back).
[Rosatom, 4 April] Rosenergoatom plans to launch a floating nuclear power plant by 2012 near the town of Pevek on Russia's Chukotka peninsula on the East Siberian Sea, with a second to follow in 2019, according to the company's director general, Sergey Obozov. The 70 MWe plants will replace capacity lost with the closure of the Chaun thermal power plant, which will have been decommissioned by that time. Russia's first floating nuclear plant will be launched by 2010 near Severodvinsk in Arkhangelsk region. China has signed an $86.5 million deal to build the body of the first plant, while Russia will be responsible for the power block. The floating plants have a service life of 40-50 years, require a crew of 69 people and generate enough heat and electricity to power a city of some 500,000 people.
(Back)
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