Russia has launched the worldly concern ’s only floating nuclear reactor , nonplus countries like the US andChinato the post .
TheAkademik Lomonosovset off from a embrasure in St Petersberg on Saturday and will now baffle the Baltic sea where it will follow the Norwegian slide before make it at Murmansk , a town in Northwest Russia . There , it will pick up fuel and undergo testing before making the journeying to its final destination , Pevek , in 2019 . To get there , it will be tow by two boats , which – provided there are no delays and conditions are favourable – will trip along at around 3.5 to 4.5 knot .
The state - own company responsible for for build up theAkademik Lomonosov , Rosatom Corporation , say it will be used to power a desalinization plant , oil semi , and the Arctic town , Pevek , with its 100,000 denizen . It will replace the Bilibino and Chaunskaya thermal might plants , which presently bring home the bacon the part ’s energy .
This float power industrial plant might not be the human beings ’s first , flow , as some medium outlets have suggest ( that prize goes to theSS Sturgis , or MH-1A , a US - owned 10 - megawatt change Liberty ship , which was de - commissioned in 1977 ) but it is the first to have a dual reactor – and at 70 megawatts , it is also the big .
While it ’s certainly an impressive engineering feat , it has also been extremely controversial .
The company initially plan to have it packed with fuel and tested on - site in the center of St Petersberg rather than Murmansk but reconsider after present pressure sensation from the Baltic countries and a Greenpeace Russia - lead petition .
" To test a nuclear reactor in a densely populated surface area like the centre of St Petersburg is irresponsible to say the least , ” Greenpeace nuclear expert Jan Haverkamp said in astatement .
“ However , moving the examination of this ‘ atomic Titanic ’ aside from the public eye will not make it less so . " He has also described the labor as " Chernobyl on ice ” . " atomic reactors bobsled around the Arctic Ocean will pose a shockingly obvious threat to a fragile surround which is already under enormous pressure from clime modification . "
Haverkamp highlights business organization over the ship ’s categoric - bottomed hull and lack of self - actuation , which could make it particularly vulnerable to utmost atmospheric condition like cyclone and tsunami .
Despite these concern , Rosatom has alreadyannounced plansto construct a 2d float exponent plant , which could be launched as early as 2030 .
