Rosatom suggests replacement of floating power unit Akademik Lomonosov with more powerful one — Yury Trutnev
The output of FPU Akademik Lomonosov is not enough for projects being implemented in Chukotka
State Atomic Energy Corporation ROSATOM has put forward an initiative on replacement of floating power unit Akademik Lomonosov operating in the Chukotka Autonomous District with a more powerful one, Yury Trutnev, Deputy Prime Minister of the Russian Federation - Presidential Plenipotentiary Envoy to the Far Eastern Federal District, said when speaking about the development of energy system in Chukotka, according to the Telegram channel of Yury Trutnev’s office.
FPU Akademik Lomonosov is to be moved to another location where power generation is needed. “It seems to me that it is the module-based approach to production of electricity by floating nuclear-powered units developed by Rosatom that allows for such replacements ensuring the supply of energy to regions without huge additional investments,” said Yury Trutnev.
The official inspected the progress of the Baimsky Mining and Processing Plant (Baimsky GOK) project and reminded about the construction of four floating power units intended for power supply to it. According to Yury Trutnev, the output of FPU Akademik Lomonosov is not enough for projects being currently implemented in Chukotka.
Investments in Baimsky GOK to exceed RUB 730 billion including RUB 91.4 billion already invested into the project, according to Yury Trutnev. Baimsky GOK will process up to 70 million tonnes of ore per year. At the phase of construction, the project will generate up to 11 thousand jobs.
A total of 95 investment projects are being implemented in Chukotka with the state support. Investments in those projects are estimated at over RUB 900 billion, the number of jobs is to exceed 12 thousand.
Baltiysky Zavod JSC (a company of United Shipbuilding Corporation) delivered the world’s first floating power unit, the Akademik Lomonosov of Project 20870, to the customer in June 2019. In September 2019, the Akademik Lomonosov came to the port of Pevek.
FPU Akademik Lomonosov is intended for operation as a part of floating nuclear power plant to supply electric energy to the industry and settlements of the Far North and Chukotka.
The vessel’s particulars: LOA — 144 m; BOA — 30 m; depth — 10 m; displacement — 21.56 thousand tonnes; draft — 5.6 m; capacity - 70 MW, heat power - 50 Gcal/h.
To ensure power supply to the Baimsky project, an agreement for supply of four upgraded floating nuclear power units (FNPUs) was signed by Atomenergomash (mechanical engineering division of ROSATOM) in 2021. The construction of four 106 MW FNPUs is to be completed by the beginning of 2027.
Due to the tight schedule of the project and high loading of domestic shipyards it was decided to have the hulls for the first two units built at a foreign shipyard. As Konstantin Stasyuk, Deputy Director of Department for Implementation of NSR Projects - Head of Infrastructure Development Department, Rosatom, said in November 2022, the third and the fourth FNPUs can be built by Baltiysky Zavod shipyard in Saint-Petersburg, either following the same scheme or fully, depending on the shipyard’s load. The decision on the scheme to be applied for the construction of the third and the fourth FNPUs will be made by the end of 2023.
The construction of RITM-200C reactors for all the four FPUs is underway in Russia at the facilities of ROSATOM’s mechanical engineering division. Designed by Nizhny Novgorod based OKBM Afrikantov, they are produced by SpetsStal Association near Saint-Petersburg and then undergo machining and assembling at ZiO-Podolsk near Moscow.
