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A $200-Million Floating Nuclear Plant?
Roland Piquepaille writes "In 'A Floating Chernobyl?,' Popular Science reports that two Russian companies plan to build the world's first floating nuclear power plant to deliver cheap electricity to northern territories. The construction should start next year for a deployment in 2010. The huge barge will be home for two 60-megawatt nuclear reactors which will work until 2050... if everything works fine. It looks like a frightening idea, don't you think? But read more for additional details and pictures of this floating nuclear power plant."
Millitary ships have had Nuclear powerplants for years this isn't exactly new other then being bigger.
Don't submarines, aircraft carriers, and navy ships in general fit this description already?
Smaller scale I imagine but nonetheless...
Give them the illusion of choice and they will blindly follow for they choose not to make one.
Don't we already have these? Nuclear submarines and aircraft carriers have been around for a while. The only difference here is they run a cable to the mainland to supply power, again nothing new.
two Russian companies plan to build the world's first floating nuclear power plant
Um, far from the first. See Nuclear Navy .
The US Nimitz class Aircraft carriers each carry a single 194MWatt nuclear reactor. The USS Enterprise has a total of eight nuclear reactors onboard. All but two US carriers - and absolutely all US military submarines are nuclear powered. Even ships as small as cruisers have been nuclear powered in the past.
French Rubis class submarines each have a 48 MW reactor.
Russian Typhoon class submarines carry two 190MWatt reactors.
Russian Arktika class ice breakers carry two reactors of 171MWatts each. The Taimyr class have 135MWatt reactors. There are a total of ten Russian civilian nuclear ice breakers in active service.
So a couple of measley 60MWatt reactors on a barge somewhere isn't really the huge news you might think.
Having reactors on a barge that's moored someplace has gotta be safer than having them than crashing off through icebergs or sitting off the coast of countries full of terrorists who would love nothing better than to drive a boatload of explosives into them - or yet putting them on submarines whose safety record doesn't really look so great.
It's been suggested that the two reactors they are using on this barge came from decomissioned Russian submarines anyway...so we're probably better off having them used for peaceful purposes and being moored someplace where we know exactly where they are!
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