Russian subsea nuclear powered drilling platforms for Arctic oil and gas

[bananas]

http://www.bellona.org/articles/articles_2008/polar_nuclear

Russia to nuke oil and gas fields in the Arctic


A subsea nuclear powered drilling facility as pictured by the designers.
(Illustrasjon: Lavkovsky / Lazurit Design 2008)

From Polar to Nuclear - Bellona report(3.10MB)

Bellona yesterday presented a new report on the projected use of nuclear energy in exploration of Russian oil and gas industry in the Arctic, a topic that has been heating the environmental community since Russian gas giant Gazprom began to drop hints about using nuclear energy to power its vast development scheme for the Shtokman oil and gas condensate field under the Barents Sea, and the nuclear industry offered up nuclear submarines and icebreakers for transport and drilling purposes.
Igor Kudrik, 13/11-2008

The report titled "From Polar to Nuclear? ‘Nuclearification’ of the Russian offshore oil and gas industry" was presented at the hearing in the European Parliament hosted by Rebecca Harms, Member of European Parliament (MEP) Greens/EFA, Sirpa Pietikainen, MEP, EPP-ED, and Henrik Lax, ALDE.

Russian research centres are working on designs to apply nuclear energy in developing oil and gas fields in the Russian Arctic. The drafts obtained by Bellona and presented in the new report written by energy security expert Vladislav Larin suggest usage of nuclear energy both to drill and transport oil and gas from the shelf fields located in the Barents and the Kara Seas. The report can be downloaded from the context box on the right.

Prehistory

Russia built more than 250 nuclear powered vessels back in the Soviet era, hundreds of industry plants, and design and research centres were involved in constructing the vessels. After the collapse of the Soviet Union, some two hundred vessels were pulled out of service. Russia and the Russian army were in desperate need of cash. In those turbulent times, the idea of converting nuclear powered submarines into cargo vessels to ship goods under the Arctic ice was hatched.

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[comtec]

1. That's fuckign brilliant!!!!

All the dangers of DOING that aside, the nuclear issue, etc etc,
the idea of recycling a nuclear sub into a peace time factory under the ocean is brilliant!!!
and bing Russia they probably have already DONE it... or at least have prototypes.

Here's the thing about Russian (soviet) tech, it's big, its clunky, its NOT elegant... but it works. and it's affordably built.

The russians have been kicking our asses in practical space life for decades, I'm honestly amazed they never went to mars... red planet and all :)