Russian Floating Reactor

[charles.carlson]

I saw a few articles last week about the first Russian Nuclear Reactor being deployed and am looking for additional info. Does anyone know of any sources for such info?

[Helen22]

Not sure what sort of information or details you are looking for. Most of what I know about the Russian floating reactor is what I've read in the news in the last couple of weeks. There was, however, a book written a few years ago by a Russian group, similar to Green Peace or UCS here in the US, that concluded that Russian floating reactors, were less safe than conventional ones, were less economical in the long run and the design used was already known to have significant problems. I think the design was an adaptation of an old Rosatom design, but I am not 100% certain.

I'll see if I can find the old book/report I mentioned above and will post it here.

In general, floating reactors are not a new idea, scientists and engineers have been thinking and talking about them for decades. Think of it this way, most superpower navies have had floating and submerged reactors for years (subs, carriers, etc.). This is sort of an extension to that, with the rector being much bigger.

[Helen22]

I found the document I mentioned earlier, Hope it provides the info you were looking for.

[JoseYun]

The deployment of the first floating reactor (it will actually not be operational for another year or so), is consistent with the plan released in 2010 by the Russian State Atomic Energy Corporation Rosatom which wanted 50 reactors running in Russia by 2025 (they had 32 in 2010) and 20 more rectors abroad by 2030. By their statements, they want 25% of domestic electricity to be from nuclear by 2030 (Susanne Oxenstierna, Swedish Defence Research Agency, "Russia’s Nuclear Energy Expansion", Dec 2010).

The Bellona Foundation report from Norway (Russian Nuclear Power - 2017), has some details about the Floating Nuclear Plant the Russians finished construction a few weeks ago. It appears to be a small plant, 2 reactors @ ~ 35 MW each, and is along the lines of the SMR concept that many countries around the world have been prototyping.

[HowardE]

Is the US working on, do they already have a floating Nuclear Plant?

[JoseYun]

Lots of analytical work, but to my knowledge, nothing built, yet.