Russia building 1st floating nuke plant

[WePurrsevere]

Source: AP via Boston Globe

MOSCOW --Russia began construction of its first floating nuclear power plant Sunday, and plans to build at least six more despite long-standing environmental concerns that they are vulnerable to accidents at sea, Russian news agencies reported.
<snip>

The head of Russia's atomic energy agency, Sergei Kiriyenko, said the plants will be safe. "This plant is much safer than atomic energy stations on the ground," the RIA-Novosti news agency quoted him as saying at a formal ceremony at the Sevmash fabricating plant in Severodvinsk on the White Sea coast.
<snip>

The atomic energy agency and Sevmash on Sunday signed a document on their intent to build six more floating power plants, the ITAR-Tass news agency said.

It cited the atomic energy agency as saying that talks were under way on selling the plants to unspecified Asian and African countries as well as to Russian regions.

Read more: http://www.boston.com/news/world/europe/articles/2007/04/15/russia_building_1st_floating_nuke_plant/

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Unfortunately it looks like they're going ahead with this despite concerns of environmentalists. When I heard last year that they were considering doing this, I was sort of hoping they were just floating (no pun intended) the idea and wouldn't go through with it. http://news.independent.co.uk/europe/article1089280.ece

The idea of one of these floating nuke plants getting hit by a hurricane or such makes me more then just a bit nervous. :scared:

[midnight]

1. Wow. While we have been busy at war. Russia has been

busy planning on more flexibility when they go to war. And that hurrican potential-just wow!!!!!

[PittPoliSci]

2. guess they were running out of room to build them on russian land...

actually, i think this is a pretty exciting innovation, i'd like to read more about it.

[INDIA]

3. I'm not sure hurricanes hit Russia.

I think the occasional cyclone may hit the eastern Pacific shores, but you need warm/wet weather for hurricanes, and Russia is lacking that.

They have rough storms for sure in the northern seas, but I don't think it's anything approaching Hurricane levels.

That being said, a corrupt and rusted country like Russia making nuclear energy definitely makes me nervous, on land or on sea.

[WePurrsevere]

6. I'm not as worried about hurricanes hitting Russia as I am the other countries

In the article it says (in the last paragraph I cited) that, "talks were under way on selling the plants to unspecified Asian and African countries as well as to Russian regions."

So perhaps not hurricanes per se but one of it's relatives, like a Typhoon, Cyclone or perhaps even a tidal wave.

Also with Global Warming if I can be looking at a Winter Storm Warning that says we (Northern NY) might get a FOOT or so of SNOW in the middle of April after we had temps close to 70 in January, I'm not 100% sure that it's not totally impossible for a hurricane or a similar type of storm to hit Russia at some point.. perhaps even within the next few decades.

[lpbk2713]

4. The USA has had em for years .....

USS Enterprise, christened 24 September 1960.



Link: http://navysite.de/cvn/enterprise-history.htm

[3waygeek]

5. Nothing new...

back in the 70s, New Jersey Public Service came up with plans for floating nuclear plants, spending millions on models, environmental impact studies, and the like. However, the Three Mile Island incident sort of put the kibosh on US nuclear development, so the plans were shelved.

For more information, see John McPhee's anthology Giving Good Weight -- one of the short pieces therein is a detailed description of the planning process.

[Sirveri]

7. The plant is said to be a PWR reactor.

It's one of the safest most used reactor types ever made. That and they've already got three of these things powering ice breakers, so they're fairly experienced with the plant. Oil won't last forever, so it's about time someone did something to get off of it.

[RexDart]

8. We've done it also...

In the late 60's, the surplus Liberty Ship William Sturgis was converted into a floating reactor and used at the Panama Canal from 68-76.

Cool, I found a link with photo... photo of the Sturgis

[Psephos]

9. Wow, amazing idea! What could possibly go wrong?.... n/t

[MadHound]

10. I am continually amazed at how mankind can come with unique ways

To wreak havoc and lay destruction to the planet and himself.

This is fucking insane. Storms, waste, human error, naw, what could go wrong. And if something does go bad, I imagine the Russians will just ditch the core, letting it sink into the ocean depths where they don't have to(immediately) deal with the consequences:grr:

Goddamn fucking bastards:grr:

[nealmhughes]

11. What do y'all think submarines and aircraft carriers are?

Actually, once a typhoon hit a section of the Hawaiian islands and a submarine surfaced off shore, steamed into port on a smaller island (not Hawaii or Oahu) and back fed shorepower from the reactor's turbines to the grid until the main power grid could get back on line. This was in the early 80s.

On the other hand, ships maneuver and subs submerge when weather threatens. . .