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Russia To Build Floating Nuclear Power Plant
Russia will build the world's first floating nuclear power plant, Russia's Atomic Energy Agency (RosAtom) has announced. A low-power plant with an electrical capacity of 70 MWt and heat capacity of 140 Gigacalories may be constructed in the Russian northwestern town of Severodvinsk within five years, a spokesman for RosAtom told Itar-Tass on Thursday. The project's estimated cost is $180 million, and $30 million has already been spent on the planning stage.Calculations made by RosAtom experts suggest the floating power plant will pay for itself in eight years. The agency lacks funds, however, and is going to ask the government for help in obtaining loans in commercial banks or offer from other countries to join the project. China, Indonesia and a number of Middle Eastern and Mediterranean countries have reportedly voiced interest in the project, but they want the plant to be built first to show potential investors that it does not pose a threat to the environment. RosAtom head Alexander Rumyantsev said earlier that floating power plants are absolutely safe. The reactors "will be the same as those that are used by our submarines and nuclear ice-breakers," he said, stressing that after the Kursk submarine that sank in August 2000 was lifted from the bottom of the Barents Sea, its reactors were still in an operational condition. However, many critics say the main objective of nuclear plants all over the world is enrichment for building nuclear weapons, and after RosAtom first announced the building of the floating plant in the early 2000s, foreign media immediately called it a "floating Chernobyl". The Russian side says that the plant will be able to provide a town of 50,000 people with heating and electrical energy or be used to desalinate sea-water. Posted by: Spavirt Pheng6042 2005-05-30 |
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