Development of nuclear fuel 'complete' for RITM-200S floating power project

Tuesday, 20 December 2022

The project for the upgraded floating power unit includes two of the reactors on a barge, with a nominal thermal power of 198 MW each. The RITM-200S’s core will have four times as much energy as the core of the current KLT-40S reactor, as well as a near-doubling of the nuclear fuel service life, with refuelling needed about every five years, Rosatom says.

The modernised floating power units are intended to deliver a power supply for the Baimskaya Mining and Processing Plant in Chukotka.

In total, the Baimskaya development requires around 300 MWe, therefore three such floating power plants are needed, while a fourth will be installed as backup for outages during refuelling and maintenance. The timescale has been for the first one to be in operation by 2027, in time to power a new port and the entire infrastructure of the Baimskaya copper and gold mine.

Russia’s nuclear icebreaker project 22220 has already launched vessels with RITM-200 reactors and Rosatom is also involved in a pilot project for a land-based RITM-200N reactor plant to provide power in remote areas of Yakutia.

In August it was announced that construction had begun in a Chinese shipyard of the first of the barges which will host the RITM-200S reactors. They measure 140 metres in length and 30 metres in width and the first one is forecast to weigh 9549 tonnes when delivered to Atomenergomash, which is scheduled to happen by the end of next year.