Russia launches floating nuclear reactor to provide power to remote areas

Today, Russia has launched an active nuclear reactor on water, which is set to journey across the Arctic, despite warnings about nuclear accidents in the past.

BBC reported the Russian nuclear reactor, ‘Akademic Lomonosov’, loaded with nuclear fuel would leave the Arctic port of Murmansk to begin its 5000 kilometer voyage to Chukotka in the far east, allowing it to deliver power to remote areas.

Rosatom State Atomi? Energy Corporation (Rosatom), Russia's state nuclear corporation, says this floating reactor is part of the bigger plan to provide power to remote areas in Russia and the world, published Al-Jazeera.

The construction of this 472 foot reactor began in 2006 in Saint Petersburg. On board the Akademik Lomonosov are two KLT-40C reactor systems, each with a capacity of 35 megawatts.

The “unparalleled piece of engineering” as Rosatom’s Director Gengeral Alekey Likhachev describes it, can also be used to run desalination plants to meet Russia’s water demand.

The renowned Canadian NGO, Greenpeace has not welcomed this initiative by Russia, warning that any nuclear accident in the remote areas would cause catastrophic damage, if not contained.

In 2017, Greenpeace protested against this project at the Saint Petersburg Baltic shipyard, according to Al-Jazeera. However, testing of the reactor was then shifted to the smaller city of Murmansk in May, where the floating plant was loaded with nuclear fuel before its final departure.

Critics have called out past incidents involving nuclear sea vessels, including the sinking of the gargantuan Kursk Submarine in 2000 and the radiation leakage by a Russian ice breaker off the coast of Siberia in 2011, raising further concerns about global contamination.

Despite this, Michael Golay, a professor in the Nuclear Science and Engineering Department at MIT told Al-Jazeera that this plant could prove sustainable because it uses gravity and ocean water for cooling more foolproof.

While this recent invention promises great opportunities for the future,according to critics it suffers from the threat of severe operational risks, which can only be discovered after the mission is complete.