The world’s first floating nuclear power plant is currently under construction at a shipyard in St. Petersburg. It is scheduled for delivery in late 2012. The FNPP will be 144 m long and 30 m wide and house two 35-MW reactors. The 21,500-ton vessel will cost $274 million.
Russia’s United Industrial Corporationis building the FNPP at Baltyisky Zavod shipyard for owner Concern Energoatom, Ukraine’s state-owned nuclear utility. The construction of Russia’s first floating nuclear power plant started at the Sevmash yard in Severodvinsk in April 2007, but in August 2008 the project was transferred to the Baltiysky Zavod in Saint Petersburg. According to official version, because of the heavy workload of military and defense orders. Unofficial version highlights missed deadlines and inflated costs as the key to this change.
After the completion, this new mobile power station will provide electricity and heat to remote coastal towns as well as plants for desalination of sea water. The location for the FNPP has not been yet revealed, but the basic characteristics of plants already known. As stated by the press center of nuclear energy and industry, two nuclear reactors to power of 35 megawatts will be able to operate for 38 years, three 12 year cycles with the maintenance and modernization intervals in between. In addition, the plant will also provide heat: 140 gigacalories per hour, which is sufficient for lighting and heating of a small town. In the Far North, where to deliver fuel oil or diesel fuel is expensive, and pull power lines still difficult due to permafrost, floating nuclear power plant can be relatively inexpensive and reliable source of energy.
Russia has extensive experience with nuclear-propelled submarines and icebreakers, and the reactors on the FNPP will be similar to ones used by the icebreakers. It is the experience of operation of icebreakers Rosatom experts cite when they talk about the safety of floating nuclear power plant.
KONE Marine unit is currently developing the solutions for the 2 elevators located in an accommodation and in the reactor sections of the FNPP. This demanding project requires high competence of marine engineers. One more challenge is to receive certification from the Russian Maritime Register of Shipping. As KONE Marine elevators has already been approved by such international classification societies as DNV, ABS, LR, BV, GL, RINA , the approval of the Russian Maritime Register of Shipping will be a metter of formality.
About Baltiysky Shipyard
Baltiysky Zavod, JSC is one of the leading enterprises in the Russian shipbuilding industry. In 2006, the shipyard is celebrating its 150th anniversary. During this century-and-a-half period, the shipyard has delivered over 500 naval ships, submarines, and commercial vessels. Since the day of its foundation, the shipyard has been among the first to undertake new shipbuilding projects subsequently taken up by other yards.
Currently the Baltiysky Zavod shipyard specializes in construction of icebreakers and ice-classed vessels (with nuclear-powered propulsion, as well as conventionally powered), large commercial vessels for carrying various types of cargo, and naval ships. Over the recent years Baltiysky Zavod has delivered ships to customers from Russia, Germany, Holland, Portugal, Norway, Sweden, and other countries.