Page 7 - AfrElec Week 34

AfrElec NUCLEAR AfrElec
Floating nuclear tech put to the test
CHINA
RUSSIA’S Akademik Lomonosov, the country’s pioneering oating nuclear power plant (FNPP), set sail from Murmansk on August 23 bound for Pevek, Chukotka, via the Northern Sea Route (NSR).
In what Russia describes as a major techno- logical breakthrough for atomic energy, the plant will generate electricity for remote areas currently supplied by an ageing 36-MW NPP at Bilibino and an obsolete 34-MW coal- red cogeneration plant at Chaunskaya.
e ship carries 70 MW of nuclear generat- ing capacity comprising two 35-MW KLT-40C reactors. It can be modi ed as a desalination plant with a capacity to produce 240,000 cubic metres per day of fresh water.
As well as use in remote regions of Russia, Moscow is keen to develop the export poten- tial for oating atomic energy, and China has expressed interest, although nothing has been agreed.
China has also announced plans to develop its own oating nuclear programme, but little progress has been made.
Momentous occasion
“ is is a momentous occasion for our com- pany and for the Chukotka region. Today the Akademik Lomonosov begins its journey to Pevek, where it will guarantee clean and reliable energy supplies to people and businesses across the region. is amounts to a signi cant contri- bution to creating an Arctic future that is both sustainableandprosperous,”saidRosatomCEO Alexei Likhachev.
Russia describes its floating nuclear pro- gramme as providing “clean and reliable” electricity to remote areas of the Arctic, and boasts of its central role in boosting economic
development in the region. ese oating plants are of crucial importance for supplying power to gas elds being developed in remote far north- ern areas such as the Yamal Peninsula.
e Akademik Lomonosov was launched in 2016 and employs technology used until now in Russia’s eet of nuclear submarines.
e project has faced numerous delays – the ship was originally scheduled to be in use in the Far East in 2016 – and proved to be far more costly than originally intended.
Andrei Zolotkov, a Murmansk-based nuclear adviser to environmental NGO Bellona, said in 2016 that the project’s overall budget had reached $750mn. Originally the cost was esti- mated at just $140mn.
Greepeace has dubbed the project the “Nuclear Titanic,” although the Russian govern- ment has dismissed any safety concerns. Other media have coined the phrase “Chernobyl on Ice.”
Indeed, Moscow is also keen to export its floating reactor technology, and China has proved receptive.
In 2014, Rusatom Overseas, the export unit of Rosatom, signed a preliminary deal with CNNC New Energy (China) to supply six FNPPs.
“Floating NPPs can provide a reliable power supply not only to remote settlements but also to large industrial facilities such as oil platforms,” Rusatom Overseas chief executive Dzhomart Aliev said at the time.
e two sides are to set up a joint working grouptodeveloptheproject.
Meanwhile, China National Nuclear Corp. (CNNC) is working on a prototype floating reactor for use in islands in the South China Sea and to support o shore oil exploration and production.™
Week 34 28•August•2019 w w w . N E W S B A S E . c o m P7