Floating plant to be delivered in 2016

The Baltiysky Zavod in St Petersburg is on schedule to deliver the first floating nuclear power plant to its customer, Russian nuclear power plant operator Rosenergoatom, in September 2016, the shipyard's general director Aleksey Kadilov said today.

The Baltiysky Zavod in St Petersburg is on schedule to deliver the first floating nuclear power plant to its customer, Russian nuclear power plant operator Rosenergoatom, in September 2016, the shipyard's general director Aleksey Kadilov said today.

Academician Lomonosov (Image: Rosatom)

According to Russian news agency ITAR-TASS, Rosatom director general Sergey Kirienko said last week that the Academician Lomonosov could start operating in Chukotka as early as in 2017, but the region "lags far behind" in creating the coastal infrastructure required for that.

Rosenergoatom signed a RUR 9.98 billion ($239 million) purchase contract for the floating plant for Vilyuchinsk, on the Kamchatka Peninsula in the Far East, in July 2009. The 2x35 MWe Academician Lomonosov was due to be completed in 2011 and commissioned in 2012, but the project was delayed due to shipyard insolvency. The two reactors were installed in October 2013.

The keel of Academician Lomonosov was laid in April 2007 at Sevmash in Severodvinsk, but in August 2008 Rosatom cancelled the contract - apparently due to the military workload at Sevmash - and transferred it to the Baltiysky Zavod shipyard, which has experience in building nuclear icebreakers.

New keel-laying took place in May 2009 and the two reactors were delivered from OKBM Afrikantov by August. The 21,500 tonne hull - 144 metres long, 30 m wide - was launched at the end of June 2010.

The state-owned United Shipbuilding Corporation acquired the shipyard in 2012 and a new contract with Baltijsky Zavod-Sudostroyeniye, the successor of the bankrupt namesake, was signed in December 2012.

In June 2009 Rostechnadzor approved the environmental review for the siting licence for the facility, as well as the justification of investment in it.

The reactor assembling and acceptance tests were carried out at Nizhniy Novgorod Machine Engineering Plant (NMZ).

Three companies had contributed: OKBM - development of design and technical follow-up of the manufacture and testing, Izhorskiye Zavody - manufacture of the reactor pressure vessel, and NMZ - manufacture of component parts and reactor assembling.

Researched and written
by World Nuclear News