RUSSIA AND THE ARCTIC — A massive floating nuclear power plant is now on its way to an Arctic port, after Russia's state nuclear corporation Rosatom launched the nuclear plant over the weekend.<br /><br />Russian officials say the Akademik Lomonosov is set to become the first series of floating nuclear power plants Russia plans to develop.<br /><br />The portable plant is not self-propelled and must be towed to the desired location. It is designed to provide energy to port cities and offshore gas and oil-extracting platforms.<br /><br />The floating nuclear power plant will be towed from St. Petersburg and around Norway to a Russian town called Murmansk to take on nuclear fuel. From Murmansk, the $232 million nuclear plant will head to the Arctic to power the oil-industry town of Pevek.<br /><br />With two nuclear reactors, the nuclear plant will produce up to 70 MW[d] of electricity, enough to power a city of 100,000 inhabitants.<br /><br />Rosatom says the nuclear plant is designed with the great margin of safety that exceeds all possible threats and makes nuclear reactors 'invincible' for tsunamis and other natural disasters.<br /><br />Rosatom also added that the floating nuclear plant meets all the requirements of the International Atomic Energy Agency and do not pose any threats to the environment.<br /><br />Despite such reassurances, Greenpeace nuclear expert Jan Haverkamp told Engadget that having nuclear reactors moving around the Arctic Ocean creates a obvious threat to a fragile environment which is already affected by climate change.
