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Small Nuclear Power Plants To Dot the Arctic Circle

Posted by Soulskill on from the ubiquitous-radioactive-polar-bears dept.

Vincent West writes with news of a Russian project currently underway to populate the Arctic Circle with 70-megawatt, floating nuclear power plants. Russia has been planning these nuclear plants for quite some time, with construction beginning on the prototype in 2007. It's due to be finished next year, and an agreement was reached in February to build four more. According to the Guardian: "The 70-megawatt plants, each of which would consist of two reactors on board giant steel platforms, would provide power to Gazprom, the oil firm which is also Russia's biggest company. It would allow Gazprom to power drills needed to exploit some of the remotest oil and gas fields in the world in the Barents and Kara seas. The self-propelled vessels would store their own waste and fuel and would need to be serviced only once every 12 to 14 years."

4 of 255 comments (clear)

  1. Nuclear submarines by CrimsonAvenger · · Score: 5, Insightful

    "The 70-megawatt plants, each of which would consist of two reactors on board giant steel platforms, would provide power to Gazprom, the oil firm which is also Russia's biggest company. It would allow Gazprom to power drills needed to exploit some of the remotest oil and gas fields in the world in the Barents and Kara seas. The self-propelled vessels would store their own waste and fuel and would need to be serviced only once every 12 to 14 years."

    This probably sounds like a serious potential problem to some of the nuclearphobes, but the basic description sounds like they're using nuclear submarine power plants with electrical generators attached to the turbines instead of a screw.

    In other words, this sort of thing has been operating safely for about 50 years now.

    --

    "I do not agree with what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it"
  2. Re:Only one problem.... by mangu · · Score: 5, Funny

    What if killer penguins decided to attack these floating nuke stations and because of that developed mutant powers?

    It would be quite a mutation, to allow them to swim 20000km from the Antarctic to the Arctic...

  3. Re:Ranting against "evil Russians" to commence... by Devout_IPUite · · Score: 5, Insightful

    No, I don't agree that cheap gas is good. Cheap gas = larger cars = more emissions. Also, cheaper gas = lower price point green alternatives have to compete with. You say "until alternative cars become affordable", but the cheaper gas is, the longer that takes.

  4. Re:Ranting against "evil Russians" to commence... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Informative

    Oh really?

    Yes, really.
    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lake_Karachay
    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Novaya_Zemlya
    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kola_Peninsula
    HTH,
    HAND