Russia: Floating Reactors

To return to the main Civilian Naval Reactors entry, see the Civilian-Use Naval Reactors file.
For more recent developments, please see the General Naval Developments file. 

The break-up of the Soviet Union and the cessation of Soviet-era energy and transportation subsidies to remote areas in the Far East and Far North of Russia have created severe shortages of electrical power and heat in these communities.  At the same time, the sharp drop in state orders for nuclear power plants imperiled thousands of jobs within the Russian nuclear complex. The simultaneous combination of these two phenomena led to serious study in Russia of the concept of providing floating nuclear reactors to cities in the Far North and Far East.  The advantage of using these reactors is that they could provide devoted sources of electricity and steam heating for remote communities and yet be mobile enough that they could be easily moved to other locations, as necessitated by changing economic circumstances.  For the Russian government, they offered a potentially quick and effective solution to a vexing economic problem; for the Russian Federal Atomic Energy Agency (Rosatom) and its subordinate enterprises, they represent a possible bright future for nuclear power, including possible sales abroad.

The first Kremlin-approved plan for installing such a unit was developed by the joint stock company Atomenergo, financed by the nuclear power utility company Rosenergoatom, and approved by the Russian government. Original plans called for the unit to replace an aging coal-burning power plant near the city of Pevek on the Chukotka Peninsula coastline (across the Chukchi Sea from Alaska).  However, this plan was later postponed; as of Maqrch 2007, the first unit, called Severodvinsk, is to be sited near the Sevmash Shipyard in Severodvinsk, Arkhangelsk Oblast.[10]  The unit will consist of two KLT-40-S pressurized-water reactors with a total capacity of 60MW mounted on a barge.[1,8]  Current policy statements indicate that the plant will used low enriched uranium (LEU) fuel,[11,12,13] although earlier plans (and the initial design) called for high-enriched uranium (HEU) fuel.

Construction of a series of similar reactors is planned if the test unit proves successful.[2,8] Approvals have already been given to site a second such plant in Vilyuchinsk, Kamchatka, home of Russia's Pacific Fleet SSBNs. [For recent floating reactor developments, see the Russia: General Naval Developments file.  Earlier developments are available in the Archived General Civilian Naval Reactor Developments file.]

A second option proposed in the press and in some industry circles has been the direct use of nuclear reactors on submarines and surface ships to provide power to cities facing major electricity shortages.  In October 1997, for example, serious discussions were held in Primorskiy Kray regarding the possible use of the nuclear cruiser Ural, the two 171MW nuclear reactors of which are underused due to the recent idling of the ship in Vladivostok harbor.[3] In fact, the Russian Defense Ministry and the Russian Security Council granted permission to convert the Ural into a floating power station.[8] Press coverage at the time, citing a report from the newspaper Kommersant Daily, noted that a nuclear submarine had previously provided electricity to a town adjacent to the Russian Navy base at Sevmorput in the Northern Fleet.  In addition, on 11 November 1998, three Pacific Fleet nuclear submarines stationed on the Kamchatka Peninsula began providing electricity to the Far Eastern town of Vilyuchinsk on the Kamchatka Peninsula.[4,5,6] (Please see the 5/12/99 entry and the 11/11/98 entry in the civilian reactors developments file for more details.)[7] However, later studies indicated that conversion would prove prohibitively expensive.

For both types of reactors, possible environmental hazards exist due to the threat of accidents caused by wave activity, freezing/thawing cycles, or the accidental (or terrorist-led) sinking of vessels with the reactors on board.
Sources:
[1] "Russian Nuclear Ship Could Become 'Emergency' Power Station," Nuclear Society of Russia report, IAEA Daily Press Review, 26 September 1997, p. 27.
[2] "Russia Approves Nuclear Plant," The Wall Street Journal, 11 September 1997, p. A1.
[3] Sergey Rybak, "Russian Far East Region Proposes Putting Ship Reactors on Grid," Nucleonics Week, 16 October 1997, p. 2.
{Entered 4/17/98 jcm}
[4] AFP, 11 November 1998; in "Nuclear Submarines Provide Electricity for Siberian Town," FBIS-SOV-98-315, 11 November 1998.
[5] ITAR-TASS, 11 November 1998; in "Russian Nuclear Subs Supply Electricity to Town in Far East," FBIS-SOV-98-316, 12 November 1998.
[6] "Atomnyye podvodnyye lodki tikhookeanskogo flota snabzhayut elektroenergiyey kamchatskiy gorod," Parlamentskaya gazeta, 12 November 1998, p. 2.  {Entered 5/19/99 HA}
[7] Leonid Vinogradov, ITAR-TASS, 11 January 1999; in "Shipyard Seeks to Convert Nuclear Ship into Power Station," FBIS-SOV-99-011, 11 January 1999. {Updated 5/26/99 HA}
[8] "Russia's Nuclear Novelty," Foreign Report, 12 November 1997; in Inquisit Agent Report, http://www.inquisit.com.  {Updated 9/10/99 JET}  
[10] "TEO proyekta plavuchey AES proshlo gosekspertizu - Minatom," Interfax, 10 November 2003. {Updated 6/7/2004 CC}
[11] Interview of Valentin Ivanov, Russian State Duma Deputy, 8 November 2005.
[12] Interview of Rosatom Nuclear Power Department Head Valery Rachkov, 18 November 2005.
[13] Vyacheslav Belyayev and Konstantin Leontyev, "Reactor Out to Sea," Nuclear Engineering International, Vol. 49, No. 594 (January 2004).

Page last updated 12 March 2007
For more recent developments, see the General Naval Developments file.
For archived developments see the Archived Civilian Naval Reactor Developments file.

Comments or questions? E-mail Cristina Chuen:  cristina.chuenATmiis.edu.

This material is produced independently for NTI by the Center for Nonproliferation Studies at the Monterey Institute of International Studies and does not necessarily reflect the opinions of and has not been independently verified by NTI or its directors, officers, employees, agents. Copyright © 2003 by MIIS.

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