Name of Project
Akademik Lomonosov floating nuclear heat and power plant (FNHPP) project.

Location
Russia.

Client
Rosenergoatom.

Project Description
The project entails the construction of the first FNHPP – Akademik Lomonosov – with a capacity of more than 70 MW.

The plant will begin its operation in the most northern part of Russia, but can be operated anywhere in the world.

The FNHPP is a mobile power unit, providing energy generation where and when it is needed.

Its construction is based on Rosatom’s icebreaker power units that operate in the Arctic, but unlike them, the unit is not self-propelled and has to be hauled on water to its destination point.

The FNHPP is then connected to onshore infrastructure to provide settlements with electricity and heat. It is designed to supply power to port cities, major industrial enterprises and offshore complexes producing oil and gas.

The nuclear thermal power plant comprises two reactor units.

The floating power unit (FPU) is a nonself-propelled rack-type vessel with a double bottom and sides, as well as superstructure. The unit is designed to work long distances from populated settlements if necessary.

A central energy compartment, with two KLT-40 reactor units, and a compartment for reloading and storing spent fuel, are located in the FPU.

In the bow, there are engine rooms and several switchgear power conversion rooms. There are stern rooms for emergency diesel generators, backup diesel generators and living quarters.

The FPU hull is built as a pontoon, with pointed nose and tip, and a transom stern.

The FNHPP includes the FPU, hydraulic utilities and onshore area.

The hydraulic utilities include a pier berth, protecting the FPU from external influences; mooring posts, providing reliable fastening of the FPU; and a connecting pier, facilitating the transfer of thermal and electrical power, as well as communications, to the shore.

The onshore area will include a transformer station and switchgear; process buildings and facilities, with a central heat distribution station, as well as equipment to prepare and transfer the thermal energy to consumers; an office building; buildings and facilities to ensure complex physical protection; and utilities going from the FNHPP to the shore.

The FPU also includes accommodation for 70 people, a dining room, a lounge, a conference room, an information centre, a library, a smoking room, a sports complex, a lounge with a bar, a hairdresser and a shop, as well as a laundry and everyday services room.

Potential Job Creation
Currently, 31 people (10.2% of the total staff count) have been hired for the FNHPP. In 2017, the company planned to extend the team up to 77 people (25.3% of the staff complement).

Value
Not stated.

Duration
The FNHPP will enter operation in 2019, in the City of Pevek, in Chukotka.

Latest Developments
One of the two reactors aboard Russia's first FNHPP, Akademik Lomonosov, has achieved a sustained chain reaction for the first time. The second reactor will be started up and tests carried out before the plant is towed to Pevek next year.

Comprehensive testing of the reactor is expected to start shortly. The vessel's second reactor will be started in the near future. All the final technological operations at the facility are scheduled to be completed by the end of this year.

Akademik Lomonosov, which is 144 m long, 30 m wide and a displacement of 21, 00 t, left the Baltiysky Zavod Shipyard on April 28. It arrived in Murmansk on May 17 after having been towed more than 4000 km and travelling through the Baltic, Northern, Norwegian and Barents seas.

The loading of fuel into the two reactors aboard the floating plant began on July 24 and was completed on October 2.

The vessel is expected to be towed to its permanent base at Pevek in Russia's Chukotka region in mid-2019. Construction work is under way in Pevek, Russia's northernmost city, to create all the necessary on-shore infrastructure. Rosatom has said that once in operation, the facility will be the world's only operational floating nuclear power plant and the northernmost nuclear installation.

Akademik Lomonosov will replace the Bilibino nuclear power plant and the Chaunskaya thermal power plant, which are being retired. The first Bilibino unit is scheduled to be shut down next year and the whole plant will be shut down in 2021.

Key Contracts and Suppliers
None stated.

On Budget and on Time?
Not stated.

Contact Details for Project Information
Rosenergoatom, tel +7 495 647 4189.