Turbines installed on floating plant

Wednesday, 10 August 2011 Construction of Russia's first floating nuclear power plant is progressing, with the two steam turbines now in place on the vessel. The Baltiysky Zavod shipbuilding company in Saint Petersburg said that the "complex and time-consuming" process of installing the turbo-generators - each weighing 230 tonnes - was completed on 3 August. The turbines were designed and supplied by the Kaluga Turbine Plant. Baltiysky Zavod said that it is now installing and connecting cables between the two main switchboards and the transformer compartment and is preparing to install cables between the main switchboards and the back-up diesel generators. Some four kilometres of power cable are scheduled to be installed by mid-August, the company said. The first plant - called the Akademik Lomonosov - will house two 35 MW KLT-40S nuclear reactors, similar to those used in Russia's nuclear-powered ice breakers. The reactors have already been assembled and delivered to the shipyard. The plant is expected to be commissioned in 2012, after which it will be put into use in Vilyuchinsk, in the Kamchatka region in Russia's far east