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Russia’s first floating nuclear power plant towed to the Arctic

30 September 2019

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.


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