Russia launches floating nuclear plant

Sky News reported April 28 that Russia’s first floating nuclear power plant, the Akademik Lomonosov, had headed out for its first sea voyage.

          Tugs are to guide the plant through the Baltic Sea and around the Norwegian coast to Murmansk, where its reactors are to be loaded with nuclear fuel. The Lomonosov is to be put into service in 2019 in the Arctic off the coast of Chukotka in the far northeast, the news agency said, providing power for a port town and for oil rigs.

          Rosatom, the state-owned atomic energy corporation, is the owner of the nuclear power plant. Several more such are likely to be constructed if the Lomonosov is successful.