Russia's new nuclear navy
According to the Russian nuclear agency RIA Novosti, the state-owned nuclear power monopoly Rosenergoatom and the Sevmash shipyard in the Arctic port of Severodvinsk have signed a contract to build the world's first floating nuclear power plant (Figure 1). A spokesman for Sevmash shipyard says the $336 million reactor will begin construction in 2007 and be commissioned in October 2010.
1. Floating paradox. A digital artist's conception of the world's first floating nuclear power plant. Courtesy: Sevmash
Sergei Obozov, head of Rosenergoatom, said that this reactor will provide heating and electricity to Sevmash. But he added that ship-mounted plants like it would be ideal for supplying energy to sparsely populated regions on Siberia's north coast, on the Kamchatka Peninsula, and in Russia's far eastern regions, many of which lack a central electricity source. Obozov added that Russian authorities were looking at 11 other possible sites for such reactors and claimed that customers from abroad were already interested in the technology. Russia's existing 31 reactors at 10 conventional sites account for about 17% of the country's power generation.
Sergey Kiriyenko, head of the Federal Agency for Nuclear Power (FANP), said that Russia possessed "unique experience . . . on using small and medium-power nuclear reactors." When asked about security, Kiriyenko replied that the reactor won't be vulnerable because Sevmash —which builds atomic submarines—is sufficiently well guarded.
As for safety, "There will be no floating Chernobyl," Kiriyenko predicted, according to the ITAR-Tass news agency. "It's no secret that the question has arisen repeatedly: 'Is such a thing at all possible?' " Kiriyenko was quoted by his ministry's press service. "But today the government's position is such . . . that we are obliged to use our experience. . . . No one else in the world has the experience we've accumulated over the years on our atomic fleet of safely operating small-capacity reactors." Unfortunately, not all of that experience has been good.
So far, Sevmash has been less than forthcoming with the project's specs. But sources say that each ship—measuring 450 feet long and displacing 21,000 tons—will have two small reactors with a total capacity of 70 MW and that the reactors' thermal energy can be sent up to 180 miles away. The plant's design life-span is 40 years, with refueling every two to three years. The project is said to have a 12-year payback.
Meanwhile, Sevmash has been busy building two Borey-class nuclear submarines to be equipped with Bulava missiles. The first sub, the Yury Dolgoruky, will be commissioned this year and the second, the Alexander Nevsky, in 2007.
Russia's old nuclear navy
The Federal Agency for Nuclear Power (FANP) and Russia's Foundation for Environmental Safety of Power Engineering (FESPE) would do well to at least give their publicists the same script. As FANP was touting Russia's unique experience with floating nukes (see previous story), FESPE was signing a contract with Fluor Ltd. and British Nuclear Group's (BNG) Project Services subsidiary to assist with the decommissioning of retired Soviet nuclear subs and with management of their spent fuel and other radioactive waste near the Barents Sea ports of Murmansk and Archangelsk. According to a press release, Fluor Ltd.—the UK operating arm of Fluor Corp. (Irving, Texas)—and London-based BNG are excited to gain a "crucial strategic foothold in . . . an emerging market that is expected to be worth billions of pounds."
Working with Rosatom—the Federal Agency for Atomic Energy—Fluor and BNG will develop a program for cleaning up the former Soviet navy's nuclear legacy. Until 1990, the Soviet navy routinely dumped radioactive waste in Far Eastern and Arctic waters. There were 13 dumping areas in Arctic seas and 10 off Russian's east coast, according to Russian environmentalists. Furthermore, the Russian navy simply sank 57 vessels filled with nuclear waste. Sixteen decommissioned reactors were also sent to the deep, including six with unloaded fuel.
Since the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991, Russia has decommissioned almost 200 nuclear submarines. About 80 still have fuel in their reactors waiting to be dismantled (Figure 2). The press release failed to mention whether the scope of work of the Fluor/BNG contract includes the future of decommissioning the new floating nuclear plants.
2. Take a number. Aerial view of the Zvezdochka shipyard in Severodvinsk, Russia, where a dozen decommissioned nuclear submarines are waiting for their reactors to be defueled and (hopefully) properly interned. Courtesy: Canadian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Global Partnership Program
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