MURMANSK, December 12. /TASS/. Work of the Akademik Lomonosov floating power unit did not raise the radiation around it, the Murmansk Region’s Secretary of the Public Council on Nuclear Safety Sergei Zhavoronkin told reporters on Tuesday.
"The inspection’s results have shown no excessive concentration of radionuclides in the air," he said.
According to him, Atomflot (the nuclear fleet authority) takes measurements regularly. They use both permanent and mobile control stations.
Head of the power unit’s tests Alexander Kovalev told reporters the floating power plant would undergo service in 12 years. Another unit for Pevek will be built to replace the Akademik Lomonosov’s service term, he continued. Within the first twelve years, the Akademik Lomonosov will require three fuel fillings, which would not require mooring the unit.
First floating nuclear power plant
The Akademik Lomonosov floating power unit is a project of transportable power units of small capacity. The power unit may work as a part of a floating nuclear power plant and is a new-class energy source, based on Russian technologies of nuclear shipbuilding. The plant has two reactors, which can produce up to 70 megawatts of electric energy and 50 gig calories/hour of heat energy in the nominal working mode. This energy is sufficient for a city with population of about 100,000.
The floating nuclear power unit is the first ever mobile transportable power unit of small capacity. It is made for the Extreme North and Far East regions, where it will produce energy for distanced industrial facilities, ports, gas and oil platforms in the open sea.
Besides, it may be used to desalinate sea water. The daily capacity is about 240,000 tonnes of desalinated water. The unit’s service term is 35-40 years. Earlier, Head of the United Shipbuilding Corporation Alexei Rakhmanov told reporters the Akademik Lomonosov will be ready for transportation from Murmansk to Pevek on Chukotka in March, 2019.