Russia Plans Low-Capacity Nuclear Power Plants for the Arctic

Russia’s nuclear agency Rosatom State Corporation has unveiled plans for a low capacity nuclear power plant to be built in the Arctic by 2020. 

According to The Arctic, the power plant will facilitate exploration of Russia's Arctic territory as called for in Rosatom's Program for Innovative Development and Technological Modernization until 2030.

Rosatom will build the low-capacity (1-300 MW) nuclear power plant to supply power to civilian and defense facilities in coastal, maritime and ocean areas of the Russian Arctic.

Russia is also developing floating nuclear power plants that are destined for Arctic waters. Russian company Rosenergoatom (part of Rosatom) launched the project in 2006, and the first such plant, the non-self-propelled Akademik Lomonosov, has been built at the Sevmash Shipyard. Fuelling of the plant is expected to begin in December. The 70MW plant is expected to be moored at Pevek on the Chukchi Peninsula in 2017 and operational by 2019.

The 144-meter (472-foot) vessel produces enough power for a town with a population of 200,000. It can be used as a desalination plant and has an expected operational life of 40 years.

Nuclear plants generate more than 18 percent of Russian electricity.

Model of Akademik Lomonosov: