By IPS Correspondents
MOSCOW, Jun 29 1996 (IPS)

Construction of the world’s first floating nuclear power plant is underway in Russia, ready to start operating by 2001 — a prospect that fills environmentalists with horror but has Russian engineers looking South for potential buyers.

Andrei Gagarinsky, vice president of the Russian Nuclear Society, and head of international relations at the Kurchatov Institute in Moscow, confirmed to IPS this week that the first of the plants was under construction after years of financial delays.

But environmentalists contend that the threat of ecological catastrophe from accidents involving oil tankers will be as nothing to a sea disaster involving a floating nuclear power plant.

Russia has long had plans to build a series of small floating nuclear power plants for use in remote regions which are not connected to the national grid or to replace thermal nuclear power plants that have grown too expensive because of high fuel transportation costs.

“Russia will need at least 15 small, low-power floating nuclear power plants,” says Gagarinsky. “They will be used in inaccessible regions of the Far East, extreme North, Altay Territory and the Kola Peninsula.”

He noted that Russia is the world leader in small nuclear power plant production and sees them as potential exports, especially to developing countries. He added that Indonesia, South Korea, China, and Vietnam have all expressed interest.

But western environmentalists are not convinced. “A major area of concern with these plants must be containment”, said Antony Froggatt of the Greenpeace nuclear campaign in London.

“The Chernobyl explosion blew the reactor lid — a 2,000 tonne block of concrete into the air. These vessels will not even have that sort of protection. This must pose a clear risk to both the marine and land environment.”

The floating plant is essentially a ship with two small pressurised water reactors (PWRs) known as KLT-40s, adapted from those used to power Russia’s nuclear icebreakers.

The KLT-40 enhanced safety PWR, designed by OKBM Experimental Design Bureau of Mechanical Engineering in Nizhny Novgorod, has been used for over 20 years to power the USSR’s seven nuclear icebreakers as well as nuclear-powered cargo ships. During this time (over 130 reactor years) the KLT has experienced no major accident.

The reactors each have a power output of 35-50 megawatts (MW) giving the plant an overall capacity of up to 100 MW of power or 50 MW plus power generating heat. As well as OKBM, the Kurchatov Institute in Moscow and the Aisberg Design Bureau in St Petersburg were involved in the design of the plant which is now being built at the Baltisky Shipyard in St Petersburg.

The first plant will be sited at the Arctic seaport of Pivek in the Chukotka Peninsula in the far north east. It will be operated by 40-50 people working in shifts and has a design life of around 40 years.

Spent fuel and wastes will be stored on board and every 13 years it will be towed 4,000 kilometres through Arctic seas to Murmansk in the Kola peninsula in Russia’s north west for maintenance and reloading with fresh fuel.

During this procedure, which will take around a year, a substitute floating plant will be put in place. It is expected to cost 254 million dollars and will take six years to build.

Electricity from the plant is expected to be five times cheaper than from any other source. There are around 50 suitable sites for such reactors along Russia’s Arctic coastline.

According to Alexander Poloushkin, Director General of the Malaya Energetika Research and Production Association, small nuclear plants can contribute up to 12 percent of the power and heat needed by these regions. He insists that the plant will be very safe.

“The plant has reliable protection systems to safeguard against all possible risks, including sinking, capsizing and even an aircraft crashing on top of it,” he says. “It won’t pollute the area with any nuclear waste because it will be stored on board.”

Similar opinions were expressed by Nikolai Filozov, a spokesman for the Russian state nuclear supervisory body, Gosatomnadzor.

But Froggatt pointed out that most PWRs have problems with their steam generators which can ultimately lead to loss of coolant accidents. A ship reactor accident at a shipyard on the Russian Pacific coast in 1985 killed several people and has left areas of Chazma Bay still contaminated.

The largely state-owned Malaya Energetika (‘Small Energy’) company is hoping to market the design internationally. Poloushkin believes there is a market for at least 100 and says his company is hoping to sell the plants to China, Indonesia, the Philippines and other countries.

Designs have been drawn up to use the KLT-40 as a basis for a floating or shore-based desalination plant (APVS-40), an underground power plant and a shore-based power plant shipped in by sea. The APVS-40 which comprises one KLT-40 and two desalination units, can supply up to 80,000 cubic metres of water a day.

The APVS-40 plant was designed by the same three organisations along with the Yekaterinburg Research and Development Institute of Chemical Mechanical Engineering.

There has already been considerable interest in this design from countries in the Middle East, Africa Latin America and Asia.

In 1992 The Kurchatov Institute discussed a possible contract to supply a plant to Israel, but negotiations foundered because Israel has not yet signed the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty.

“We have done a range of studies for offshore and onshore nuclear power plants as well as underground plants and desalination stations based on the KLT-40,” says OKBM Director Fyodor Mitenkov.

By simultaneous manufacture of reactor, floating base and support facilities he says construction time could be reduced to as low as three and a half years from the signing of any contract and in the event of large scale manufacture unit costs could be reduced to 180 million dollars each.

Excerpt:

By IPS Correspondents
MOSCOW, Jun 25 1996 (IPS)

Construction of the world’s first floating nuclear power plant is underway in Russia, ready to start operating by 2001 — a prospect that fills environmentalists with horror but has Russian engineers looking South for potential buyers.

Andrei Gagarinsky, vice president of the Russian Nuclear Society, and head of international relations at the Kurchatov Institute in Moscow, confirmed to IPS this week that the first of the plants was under construction after years of financial delays.

But environmentalists contend that the threat of ecological catastrophe from accidents involving oil tankers will be as nothing to a sea disaster involving a floating nuclear power plant.

Russia has long had plans to build a series of small floating nuclear power plants for use in remote regions which are not connected to the national grid or to replace thermal nuclear power plants that have grown too expensive because of high fuel transportation costs.

“Russia will need at least 15 small, low-power floating nuclear power plants,” says Gagarinsky. “They will be used in inaccessible regions of the Far East, extreme North, Altay Territory and the Kola Peninsula.”

He noted that Russia is the world leader in small nuclear power plant production and sees them as potential exports, especially to developing countries. He added that Indonesia, South Korea, China, and Vietnam have all expressed interest.

But western environmentalists are not convinced. “A major area of concern with these plants must be containment”, said Antony Froggatt of the Greenpeace nuclear campaign in London.

“The Chernobyl explosion blew the reactor lid — a 2,000 tonne block of concrete into the air. These vessels will not even have that sort of protection. This must pose a clear risk to both the marine and land environment.”

The floating plant is essentially a ship with two small pressurised water reactors (PWRs) known as KLT-40s, adapted from those used to power Russia’s nuclear icebreakers.

The KLT-40 enhanced safety PWR, designed by OKBM Experimental Design Bureau of Mechanical Engineering in Nizhny Novgorod, has been used for over 20 years to power the USSR’s seven nuclear icebreakers as well as nuclear-powered cargo ships. During this time (over 130 reactor years) the KLT has experienced no major accident.

The reactors each have a power output of 35-50 megawatts (MW) giving the plant an overall capacity of up to 100 MW of power or 50 MW plus power generating heat. As well as OKBM, the Kurchatov Institute in Moscow and the Aisberg Design Bureau in St Petersburg were involved in the design of the plant which is now being built at the Baltisky Shipyard in St Petersburg.

The first plant will be sited at the Arctic seaport of Pivek in the Chukotka Peninsula in the far north east. It will be operated by 40-50 people working in shifts and has a design life of around 40 years.

Spent fuel and wastes will be stored on board and every 13 years it will be towed 4,000 kilometres through Arctic seas to Murmansk in the Kola peninsula in Russia’s north west for maintenance and reloading with fresh fuel.

During this procedure, which will take around a year, a substitute floating plant will be put in place. It is expected to cost 254 million dollars and will take six years to build.

Electricity from the plant is expected to be five times cheaper than from any other source. There are around 50 suitable sites for such reactors along Russia’s Arctic coastline.

According to Alexander Poloushkin, Director General of the Malaya Energetika Research and Production Association, small nuclear plants can contribute up to 12 percent of the power and heat needed by these regions. He insists that the plant will be very safe.

“The plant has reliable protection systems to safeguard against all possible risks, including sinking, capsizing and even an aircraft crashing on top of it,” he says. “It won’t pollute the area with any nuclear waste because it will be stored on board.”

Similar opinions were expressed by Nikolai Filozov, a spokesman for the Russian state nuclear supervisory body, Gosatomnadzor.

But Froggatt pointed out that most PWRs have problems with their steam generators which can ultimately lead to loss of coolant accidents. A ship reactor accident at a shipyard on the Russian Pacific coast in 1985 killed several people and has left areas of Chazma Bay still contaminated.

The largely state-owned Malaya Energetika (‘Small Energy’) company is hoping to market the design internationally. Poloushkin believes there is a market for at least 100 and says his company is hoping to sell the plants to China, Indonesia, the Philippines and other countries.

Designs have been drawn up to use the KLT-40 as a basis for a floating or shore-based desalination plant (APVS-40), an underground power plant and a shore-based power plant shipped in by sea. The APVS-40 which comprises one KLT-40 and two desalination units, can supply up to 80,000 cubic metres of water a day.

The APVS-40 plant was designed by the same three organisations along with the Yekaterinburg Research and Development Institute of Chemical Mechanical Engineering.

There has already been considerable interest in this design from countries in the Middle East, Africa Latin America and Asia.

In 1992 The Kurchatov Institute discussed a possible contract to supply a plant to Israel, but negotiations foundered because Israel has not yet signed the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty.

“We have done a range of studies for offshore and onshore nuclear power plants as well as underground plants and desalination stations based on the KLT-40,” says OKBM Director Fyodor Mitenkov.

By simultaneous manufacture of reactor, floating base and support facilities he says construction time could be reduced to as low as three and a half years from the signing of any contract and in the event of large scale manufacture unit costs could be reduced to 180 million dollars each.

Excerpt: