Second reactor manufactured for floating nuclear plant

The floating nuclear power plant, FPU-106, will feature two of the 58 MWe RITM-200C reactors - the first was manufactured in May and is at the shipyard awaiting installation. The units have been manufactured at Rosatom's Mechanical Engineering Division’s ZiO-Podolsk plant.

Anton Lebedev, head of ZiO-Podolsk, said: "2026 has been a landmark year for ZiO-Podolsk's mechanical engineering teams: for the first time, we have produced a complete set of RITM units for a floating nuclear power plant that will supply power to an industrial cluster in the Russian North. This is an important step in the global development of small modular nuclear power. The plant has also set a record this year: in less than a year, four RITM-family units have already been manufactured, with five more in production."

The RITM-200C is an adapted version of the RITM-200 reactors used on Russia's nuclear icebreaker fleet.

In total, the Baimskaya development requires around 300 MWe, therefore, three such 100+ MWe floating power plants are needed, while a fourth will be installed as backup for outages during refuelling and maintenance.

In total, 16 RITM units have been produced. Eight are in operation on the nuclear icebreakers Arktika, Ural, Sibir, and Yakutia. A further 12 units are at various stages of manufacturing.

Rosatom says that when complete, the Chukotka project "will be the world's first green energy project for industrial production based on a floating power unit".

Russia has the world's only operating floating nuclear power plant, the Akademik Lomonosov which began commercial operation in May 2020. It is based, with its coastal infrastructure, by the city of Pevek - population 5,000 - to which it supplies heat and power in Russia's Arctic Chukotka region.

The Akademik Lomonosov has two KLT-40S reactors generating 35 MWe each, which are similar to those used in a previous generation of nuclear-powered icebreakers. It has the capacity to provide electricity to a city with a population of up to 100,000 people.

As well as the four floating power units under construction, Rosatom is targeting the export market for floating nuclear power plants.