Floating nuclear power plant Academician Lomonosov Russia: photos and videos. Floating nuclear power plant: project participants, all the pros and cons

The floating nuclear power plant "Akademik Lomonosov" is a project of mobile transport power units of small capacity. This is just the first power unit that will be part of a complete floating nuclear power plant. Already in 2019 it should arrive at the northern port of Pevek. The main purpose of this block is to replace Bilibinskaya nuclear power plant and Chaunskaya CHPP.

Purpose

The floating nuclear power plant in Pevek should provide the residents of Chukotka with heat and electricity. The operating Bilibino nuclear power plant and Chaun thermal power plant must be decommissioned, since their service life is coming to an end due to outdated equipment. Of course, it would be possible to build a new nuclear power plant in Chukotka, but due to severe frosts this would be expensive and difficult to do. Instead, by order Russian company Rosatom is building a floating nuclear power plant. This idea lay on the surface, because to build a power unit in normal conditions easier than in permafrost. Ready-made blocks can be transported by water to distant cities, moored there and provide local residents with electricity. Also, oil and gas platforms and enterprises can be powered from these power units.

In addition, the floating nuclear power plant is capable of providing residents and businesses with thermal energy, as well as producing desalination sea ​​water. It is possible to process from 40 to 240 cubic meters of sea water per day, after which it becomes fresh and suitable for consumption. All this makes it possible to increase the industrial potential of the regions and even attract investment by reducing the cost of electricity.

The ship is like a city

The floating nuclear power plant "Akademik Lomonosov" is a huge ship with the size of a 12-story building and a length of 144 meters. It can be compared to a small city. On the ship, instead of confusing streets, there are labyrinths of corridors; instead of the mayor's office, there is a central post - it is from here that control is carried out technological processes. Instead of houses, the ship has comfortable single cabins for staff. There are also offices for the management team.

Also on this floating nuclear power plant there are social facilities: a library, sports and Gym, sauna, as well as a special press room for communicating with representatives of the press.

There are a total of 96 crew members on the ship who work on a rotational basis for three months. This operating pattern is standard and is used on many large ships that spend many months at sea.

Cost and project participants

The cost of the first unit of the floating nuclear power plant cost 16.5 billion rubles. This includes everything: construction, equipment, reactor plant, creation of special coastal structures for vessel mooring. If we discard everything unnecessary from this amount, then the price of a “clean” floating power plant will be 14.1 billion rubles. Consequently, 2.4 billion rubles were spent on the construction of hydraulic and coastal structures, which are also necessary to ensure the operation of the vessel.

The following enterprises are participants in the project:

1. The Rosatom company is the customer.
2. Atomenergo is the designer of a floating nuclear power plant.
3. JSC "Baltic Plant" - manufacturer.
4. The production of turbines was undertaken by the Kaluga Turbine Plant.
5. OKBM named after I.I. Afrikantov was responsible for the supply of reactor plants.

Future plans

It is worth noting that the floating nuclear power plant project in St. Petersburg, if successful, becomes very promising. Many countries are waiting for the start of operation of this station in order to determine its effectiveness and feasibility of using it in their countries. Back in 2002, Rosatom signed declarations on the construction of floating nuclear power plants for use in Vilyuchinsk (Kamchatka), Dudinka (Taimyr), and Pevek. Also, these “floats” should appear in Yakutia and the Krasnoyarsk Territory.

Safety

Considering what kind of “cargo” is on board floating station, the issue of security is one of the most pressing. Perhaps it’s worth starting with the fact that the enrichment of the fuel used in the floating power unit does not exceed the level established by the IAEA. Consequently, all stations are created within the narrow framework of international legislation.

Second actual question- this is the resistance of a floating installation to natural influences. Tornado, tsunami, strong winds - all this a floating nuclear power plant must withstand. Afrikantov OKBM has technologies for manufacturing nuclear plants that will withstand any natural dynamic loads. These technologies were used to create a floating nuclear power plant. Indirect confirmation of this is the nuclear reactor installations of the Kursk cruiser. They withstood a powerful explosion, and after that ensured the removal of the reactor and maintained it in a safe condition, which is why radioactive substances did not escape into the environment.

Like any other station, the floating power unit is also designed with a safety margin exceeding possible loads in the area where the unit is planned to be operated. Also taken into account are the loads that could presumably arise as a result of a collision with another ship or coastal structure.

In general, hundreds of ships with nuclear power plants are used in the fleets of Russia, the USA, China, France, and England. Icebreakers, aircraft carriers, cruisers, submarines - many of these ships are equipped with nuclear power plants, and they are based in ports that are located near large cities.

Service

As for repairs and refuelling, all these operations are carried out in Russia with the involvement of specialized enterprises involved in the technological maintenance of nuclear ships. They are composed of qualified specialists, and the companies themselves have necessary equipment for ship maintenance.

After the power unit has served for 40 years, it will be replaced with a new one. The old block is returned to a specialized enterprise, where it is disposed of. As a result, there will be no hazardous materials or substances left from it that could harm environment and to man.

Who is against a floating nuclear power plant?

Like many other ambitious projects, the idea of ​​​​creating a “floating Chernobyl” was poorly received by environmentalists. They not only do not welcome such an idea, they believe that keeping such a powerful reactor plant afloat is dangerous. Experts taking part in this project claim that there is no danger, since nuclear ships have been afloat for many years and no disasters have occurred. But activists insist on their own, citing as an argument the fact that the parameters of the reactors of the floating installation have been changed compared to the parameters of reactors used on icebreakers, cruisers, etc. In particular, reactors of floating nuclear power plants have a larger active zone, and they will operate under more severe conditions, and the declared 40-year service life exceeds permissible period operation of such reactors. Therefore, many environmentalists admit that a large nuclear experiment is being prepared in Pomorie, which could end disastrously not only for these regions, but also for all of Russia.

Greenpeace also joined the protest, publishing on its website a huge list of accidents on ships with reactor installations. The list was impressive, and it was compiled on the basis of available public sources. This list includes more than 100 accidents that occurred on ships, including accidents with the release of radioactive substances into the environment.

Waste

Environmentalists are confident that Russia is hiding behind problems of energy supply to remote regions in order to build floating nuclear reactors, which in the future will be leased abroad. At the same time, there is a high probability that Russia will also undertake maintenance, including the disposal of spent nuclear fuel. A barge with nuclear fuel that sailed from Severodvinsk will return in 40 years as a large nuclear waste dump. If the production of such nuclear power plants is put on stream, then very soon a problem will arise with the disposal of spent fuel, and burying it will be more difficult than conventional fuel from land-based nuclear power plants.

Expensive

Deputy General Director of Rosatom Sergei Krysov stated earlier that the cost of one kWh produced at a floating nuclear power plant is 1.5 rubles. This is much cheaper than the cost of kWh obtained by burning gas or coal in the Far North, because the price for electricity is determined primarily by the transport component.

The general director of the Malaya Energy company admits that compared to land-based nuclear power plants, the cost of producing one kWh at a floating station is much more expensive, but in any case it is cheaper than using fossil fuels in the Far North. It is worth noting that the cost of constructing a floating nuclear power plant did not take into account the costs of disposing of spent fuel, which will need to be buried after 40 years. Given these costs, it is possible that the cost of producing one kWh of electricity could be much higher than the cost of producing one kWh using gas or coal.

However, now no one is going to pay or take into account the costs of disposal. It is quite possible that cheap recycling technologies will be invented within 40 years. Methods may also be invented reuse spent nuclear fuel.

Finally

There are only two floating nuclear power plants in the world. The Americans planned to build the first one in 1961, but already in 1976 it was taken out of service due to economic inefficiency and unsafe use. "Akademik Lomonosov" is the only working floating vessel today nuclear power plant, which is a very good solution for power supply to the remote northern regions of Russia. Over time, the use of these “mobile batteries” will make it possible to develop industry and increase the capacity of existing enterprises in remote regions, where previously this could not be done due to the high cost or lack of electricity.

In mid-August of this year, it became known: the world's first floating power unit, PEB-1, will be built not in Severodvinsk, but in St. Petersburg. The Government of the Russian Federation terminated the general contract with the Sevmash plant and entered into a new one with the Baltic Plant, and accordingly the project delivery date was postponed from 2010 to 2011. The motivation for such castling is simple: Sevmash is in Lately became very busy with military orders: we're talking about about the creation in the very near future of a group of nuclear submarines of a new generation, and in a somewhat more distant future - five or six aircraft carriers.

At the same time, such a transfer should give a little push to the stalled implementation of the idea of ​​a floating nuclear power plant. Discussions about them have been going on for more than ten years, and the stated date - 2010 - has so far remained rather a good wish of the state corporation Rosatom and the Federal State Unitary Enterprise Concern Rosenergoatom. New term- 2011 is already called a specific and real date for commissioning of the first station. An indirect confirmation of the seriousness of these intentions can be the renaming of the future owner of the station from FSUE Concern Rosenergoatom to OJSC Concern Energoatom, almost simultaneously with the transfer of the contract from Severodvinsk to St. Petersburg.

The original idea was expressed back in 1991-1994 and seems completely simple and obvious: if you take an ordinary Russian nuclear icebreaker and lay it up near the shore, then all the energy that it spends on breaking ice can be used to heat houses and generating electricity for them. At the same time, hot on the heels of Minatom (reformed into Rosatom in 2004), the first projects of floating stations were proposed, but things went slowly: no resources were allocated for their further development and serial construction, they had serious opponents both in the Duma and in the government. Now the political difficulties have been overcome; only technical and economic difficulties remain to be overcome. Sevmash began construction of the first station, called Akademik Lomonosov, back in 2007. And if after the start of operation it proves its profitability, then seven more similar stations will be built almost immediately.

The advantages of floating stations for Russia are obvious. Only European part The country can be considered developed in energy terms, and beyond the Urals - in Siberia, the Far East and the Far North - the situation with the supply of heat and electricity is very deplorable. Existing thermal power plants often find themselves without fuel at the beginning of winter; the development of normal energy infrastructure is hampered by permafrost and low density population.

The floating power unit, moored near the coastline, will be a 140-meter non-self-propelled barge with a displacement of 20 thousand tons. Two standard mobile nuclear reactors KTL-40S, 35 MW each, will be able to not only produce enough electricity for a city with a population of about 100 thousand inhabitants, but also to provide them with 150 Gcal/h of heat. The idea of ​​autonomously supplying energy to a large industrial enterprise looked especially attractive to the designers - in the original version, Sevmash actually acted as such an enterprise. The energy generated by the Akademik Lomonosov would be used to create new submarines. But for some reason this scenario was not implemented.

The mobility of FPUs presupposes a fundamentally new tactic in the energy sector: the station is not built at all in the place where it will be operated. They are delivered to objects in need of generated energy by tow. Such an object may itself be “wandering” - for example, if we are talking about explored but still undeveloped mineral deposits. In this case, experts believe, the ability to adjust the position of the “energy center” of a construction site provides important technological advantages. So, if things go well with the Akademik Lomonosov, then by 2015–2016 floating nuclear power plants will be waiting off the coast of Vilyuchinsk, Pevek and Nakhodka. In addition, Rosatom officials are counting on active exports under a leasing agreement for the services of such stations to the countries of Asia (Indonesia, Philippines, Vietnam) and Africa (Algeria, Namibia), and, subject to the launch and operation of a floating nuclear power plant in Russia, an application for supply of electricity and fresh water from the government of Cape Verde.

From a technological point of view, the idea of ​​a floating nuclear reactor itself does not raise any special questions - similar units have long been used on Russian nuclear icebreakers. However there are two specific problems, which must be resolved along the way, and it is with them that the main objections to the entire project as a whole and the concerns of human rights activists are connected. The first difficulty is in transferring energy to the consumer. It is assumed that the floating power unit will be installed at a specially equipped pier-terminal, to which power and heat transfer lines will be connected to transport energy to consumers. Among other things, the terminal must also ensure reliable fastening of the power unit near the shore. The station is serviced on a rotational basis by 60 to 140 specially trained personnel. The duration of the shift is about four months.

The second difficulty is more difficult to overcome. It is connected with the need to somehow ensure the safe operation of the station. First of all, you need to regularly load nuclear fuel and unload radioactive waste. Fortunately, this can be done quite rarely: once every 12–15 years, remove the station from lay-up, replacing it with another if necessary, and send it to the factory for reboot. In this, it is quite similar to a nuclear submarine, with the only difference being that after a decade and a half of inactivity, this “boat” may have additional reasons to drown along the way. The life of the FPU will also end in complete analogy with the life of a nuclear submarine by cutting out the reactor and burying it in a conventional nuclear burial ground.

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The floating nuclear thermal power plant “Akademik Lomonosov” is the flagship project of a series of mobile, transportable low-power power units. The floating nuclear power plant has a maximum electrical power of more than 70 MW and includes two KLT-40S reactor units. JSC "Afrikantov OKBM" is the main designer, manufacturer and complete supplier of equipment for these reactor plants with a thermal power of 150 MW each - reactors, control rod control devices, pumps, fuel handling equipment, auxiliary equipment and etc.

Floating power unit proposed for energy supply to large industrial enterprises, port cities, complexes for the extraction and processing of oil and gas on the sea shelf, was created on the basis of a serial power plant of nuclear icebreakers, tested during their long-term operation in the Arctic.

Research and design studies carried out by institutes and enterprises of the Rosatom State Corporation have shown the possibility of creating, based on ship reactors developed in Russia, a new class of energy sources for the commercial production of electricity, desalinated water, industrial and domestic heat - floating nuclear power units with a capacity of 3.5 to 70 megawatts ( el.) and more.

A floating power unit (FPU) is an autonomous energy facility, which is entirely created at a shipyard as a non-self-propelled vessel and then towed by sea or river to its place of operation. The customer is supplied with a fully built, tested and ready-to-operate energy facility with residential premises and complete infrastructure providing accommodation for operating personnel and Maintenance the object itself, that is, the technology of turnkey delivery is being implemented.

The construction of a power plant in a factory environment makes it possible to minimize the time and cost of plant construction, while simultaneously ensuring the highest quality requirements. Expensive ones are excluded construction works at the location of the floating nuclear power plant. If necessary, the FPU can be relocated from one site to another.

Floating power units are best suited for operation in hard-to-reach areas along the shores of seas or large rivers, remote from centralized power supply systems. In Russia, these are, first of all, areas of the Far North and Far East, which are not covered by a unified energy system and need reliable and economically acceptable energy sources. Here, at present, there is already an urgent need for several dozen low-power thermal power plants to stimulate the development of economic activity and ensure modern conditions life of the local population. Typical settlements in the North have from hundreds to several thousand people. The electricity needs of such a village range from several units to several tens of MW, respectively. The industrial needs of most mines and mining and processing plants are similar.

For export to coastal areas of countries and regions with arid climates, a version of the nuclear energy desalination complex (PAEC) has been developed, which produces not only electricity, but also high-quality drinking water from sea water. Such a complex includes a FPU and a floating water desalination complex, which can use either reverse osmosis (RO) technology or multi-stage evaporation units (MED). Many countries in Africa, Asia and Europe, which are experiencing an acute shortage of fresh water, are showing interest in such complexes.

The enrichment of fuel used in the installations of the floating power unit does not exceed the maximum level established by the IAEA to comply with the nuclear non-proliferation regime. This allows the use of nuclear floating energy sources within the framework of international legislation, including in developing countries.

The operation of the station in coastal areas of the world's oceans raises the question of their resistance to extreme natural influences, such as tsunamis, tornadoes, etc. JSC "Afrikantov OKBM" has a set of technologies for manufacturing a nuclear power plant in such a way that it can withstand any level of dynamic loads specified in the design. This has been confirmed by practice: the reactor installations of the Kursk nuclear submarine cruiser, created by OKBM specialists, not only withstood a powerful explosion, but also autonomously ensured that the reactor was taken out of operation and maintained in a safe condition. Even the long stay of the destroyed ship under water did not lead to the release of radioactivity into the environment.

A floating nuclear power plant - just like any other - according to modern safety standards, is initially designed with a “margin of safety” that exceeds the maximum possible loads in a given area, such as a tsunami wave hitting the station, a collision with another ship or with a coastal structure as a result of such an impact .

Speaking about the safety of floating nuclear power plants, it is important to note that hundreds of ships and warships with nuclear power plants are operated in the fleets of Russia, the United States, China, Great Britain, and France. Nuclear icebreakers, missile cruisers, aircraft carriers and nuclear submarines are based in ports, often located near large cities (for example, in Murmansk).

Repair of the station and reloading of fuel will be carried out in the conditions of specialized enterprises for technological maintenance of nuclear ships existing in our country, which have the necessary equipment and qualified personnel.

After 40 years of operation, the power unit will be replaced with a new one, while the old one is returned to a specialized processing facility for disposal. Both during and after the completion of the operation of the floating APEC, no environmental protection remains at the site of its operation. hazardous substances and materials (the “green lawn” principle).

"Akademik Lomonosov" will have a displacement of 21.5 thousand tons. The length of the vessel will be 144 m, width - 30 m. The crew will number 69 people. According to the project, the floating nuclear power plant will be deprived of its own engines: it will be transported by a tug. The station will have two reactors. The power of each reactor is 35 MW, the thermal power is 140 gigacalories per hour. The station can also be used for water desalination. It is capable of producing up to 240 thousand cubic meters. m of fresh water per day.

According to official data from the project developers, such characteristics will allow one floating power plant to supply electricity and heat to a city with a population of up to 200 thousand people.

The declared operating life of one floating nuclear power plant is 40 years. After this time, the ship with the nuclear power plant is planned to be towed to the appropriate enterprise to replace the power unit that has exhausted its service life. It is planned to install a new unit in its place, after which the floating power plant can be returned to its old duty station or transferred to a new one.

The order to begin mooring tests was signed the world's first floating power unit (FPU) "Akademik Lomonosov". According to the FPU construction schedule, tests will begin on July 1, 2016.

Carrying out mooring tests on order is the most important stage construction, defining the beginning of its final stage. Mooring tests will be carried out according to a special technological scheme and will be combined with outfitting work in the premises of the transshipment complex, equipment and engine rooms, which will require high organization and increased safety measures from the plant.

The tests will be carried out sequentially to prevent the combination of construction and testing in the same areas and premises of the FPU under construction.The planned completion date for mooring tests is October 30, 2017.

After this, the Akademik Lomonosov floating nuclear power plant will leave the factory as a finished object, which will be delivered along the Northern Sea Route to the place of work and connected to the coastal infrastructure being built in the port of Pevek . The readiness of the power unit for transportation should be achieved by the end of 2017. In September 2019, Rosenergoatom plans to begin installing the power unit at its regular location, and at the end of autumn 2019, begin testing the floating nuclear power plant and put it into operation.

Project 20870 FPU "Akademik Lomonosov" is a non-self-propelled vessel with two KLT-40 nuclear reactor units on board, designed to provide electricity and heat to hard-to-reach objects in the northern seas, as well as to desalinate sea water. According to the technical characteristics, the FPU is capable of delivering up to 70 MW of electricity and 300 MW of thermal energy to the coastal networks in nominal mode, which is enough to support the life of a city with a population of 200,000 people.

The operating life of the power unit is forty years. Moreover, every three years it is necessary to recharge the reactors. The FPU will be operated by a permanent crew of 69 people.

Construction of hydraulic and coastal structures for the world's first floating APEC >>

“Akademik Lomonosov” of project 20870 is designed to operate as part of a floating nuclear power plant (FNPP). The station is equipped with KLT-40S reactor units, which are capable of generating up to 70 MW of electricity and 50 Gcal/h of thermal energy in the nominal operating mode.

Floating power unit will replace the generating capacities that are retiring in Chukotka by 2019 - the Bilibino NPP and the Chaunskaya CHPP, which is important from the point of view of guaranteed and sustainable energy supply to the region.

The Russian Federation is an absolute global monopolist in the field of floating nuclear power plants, which are promising for use in coastal infrastructure construction.

Currently, the floating nuclear power plant "Akademik Lomonosov" (project 20870) is being completed at the Baltic Plant. According to the plan, it should be completed in September 2016., but given the “experimental nature” of the first floating nuclear power plant, final deadlines its rent and budget remain “floating”. Despite the agreement with Baltic Plant on the commissioning of the floating nuclear power plant in the fall of 2016, Rosatom admits that there is potentially time until 2019 for completion and testing.It is expected that the floating power unit will be towed from the Baltic Shipyard to Murmansk to the Rosatomflot site in the spring of 2018, where nuclear fuel will be loaded into the reactor and the physical start-up of the power unit will take place in the fall.

The very idea of ​​using atomic energy in transport installations is not new. Similar projects were developed in England, Germany and the USA. But these countries have now abandoned floating nuclear power plant projects, considering them unpromising.

Atomflot plans to build a dock for the new icebreaker LK-60 >>

Floating reactors were first used in the United States to power the Panama Canal (1966–1976) and the American research base in Antarctica (1962–1972). For example, the US floating station Sturgis (10 MW) has been moored in Virginia since 1976 and was recently towed to Galveston for disposal.

Recently, the Chinese corporation CGN (China General Nuclear Power Corporation) announced the official launch of the project of a floating station with a low-power reactor ACPR50S.

According to corporation spokesman Huang Xiaofei in Shenzhen, Guangdong Province, South China, CGN has entered into an agreement with Dongfang Electric Corporation to purchase the pressurized reactor vessel.

The ACPR50S project is considered the most optimal solution for the combined supply of heat, power and fresh water for marine resource development, as well as for power supply and emergency response in island and coastal areas.

In the 1980s, the Soviet Union developed a project for a floating nuclear power plant, Volnolom 3, with an ABV-6 reactor (power 12 MW) for use at the Moscow Region test site on Novaya Zemlya. However, work on the creation of this floating nuclear power plant was stopped at the initial stage.

The world's largest nuclear icebreaker was launched >>

First civil project Floating nuclear power plants appeared in Russia in the early 90s. In the course of implementing the Russian Government Decree No. 389 dated June 9, 1992 on ways to overcome the crisis in the fuel energy complex of the Far East and Eastern Siberia A group of Minatom experts in 1993 proposed the use of low-power nuclear power plants (100–180 MW) based on reactors from shipboard nuclear power plants. Commissioned by the Russian Ministry of Atomic Energy in the period 1992–1994. a number of competitions were held for best project low-power nuclear power plant, organized by Malaya Energy JSC. In the class of reactor installations over 50 MW, first place in the competition was awarded to a nuclear power plant project based on a floating power unit with two reactor installations of the KLT-40S type.

The active phase of construction of the lead floating power unit for the first Russian floating nuclear power plant began in 2007.Malaysia, Indonesia, South Korea, Mozambique, Namibia, South Africa, India, and Vietnam have shown great interest in the project, and Rosatom plans to lease the FNPP to these countries. Rosatom also considers the countries of South America as a promising market.