For floating APP - the future!
In the next few years, the joint efforts of the United Shipbuilding Corporation and the Rosatom state concern plan to complete the construction of the first Russian floating nuclear thermal power plant (FNPP). Experts believe that in the very near future, the export of floating APPs will be able to make up the bulk of the revenues to both organizations. However, at the same time, there are certain doubts as to whether these corporations will be able to provide at least Russia with such stations.
First of all, it should be noted that the very idea of building a floating nuclear power plant is not new. It came first to the Americans, who at the beginning of the 80s of the last century set out to build 8 such floating stations in America, whose total capacity was to reach 1150 MW. The project was estimated at 180 million dollars, but it was not successful. The reason for the failure was declared the economic inefficiency of the stations. However, it is obvious that residents of the coastal regions, who were not very happy about the prospect of having a time bomb at hand, played a large role in this. A scandal erupted that had very interesting consequences - FAPPs became interested in the Soviet Union. At the end of the 80-s in the country, the Soviets were well aware that they were the leaders in the production of nuclear reactors, but for the most part there was nowhere to go. Therefore, the idea arose to use decommissioned submarines to heat the northern coastal cities. But, fortunately, a similar undertaking was soon abandoned, because the reactors of that time were not distinguished by reliability, and the cost of such energy did not justify itself. It seemed that the floating stations were abandoned forever, but then at the beginning of a new century, the floating nuclear power station was remembered in Russia.
Andrei Dyachkov, President of the United Shipbuilding Corporation, announced the plans for the joint construction of the floating nuclear power plant, immediately after Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev visited the Baltic Shipyard (where the station is under construction). According to Dyachkov, the prime minister set aside ten days to settle all the formalities and come to a common vision of the future work, as well as their cost.
If we talk about the technical characteristics of the floating nuclear power plant, then this is a fairly profitable structure with significant potential. Roughly speaking, it is a large battery that can last up to 40 years (each 3 cycle is provided for 12 years, between which it is necessary to reset the reactor facilities). The station is based on two KLT-40С reactor installations, which were used on Soviet atomic icebreakers and submarines in Soviet times. They are capable of generating up to 70 MW of electrical energy per hour, so it is advisable to install them in places where there is no possibility or no sense to build large power plants that use other sources of electricity for operation.
FAPP has one more positive feature - it can also be used as a mobile desalination plant. If 50 years ago, the shortage of fresh water was primarily associated with the African continent, then three decades ago, the states of the Middle East faced similar problems. Moreover, in the near future, the shortage of fresh water may become a problem №1 in the world. That is why, back in the 1995 year, the volume of desalination equipment on the world market was estimated at three billion dollars. At the same time, the IAEA predicts that in future these volumes will only increase, and by the year 2015 will be estimated at 12 billions. A floating nuclear power plant is capable of desalinating about 40-240 thousands of tons of water per day, while the cost of this water will be much lower than that which was obtained using sources operating on other types of fuel. Therefore, the authors of the project do not deny that they intend to make good money at such stations.
But now all this is only possible theoretically. If we touch on the practical side of the issue, the first station of this type should have been launched last year. But during its construction certain difficulties arose. Thus, the station began to be built at the Sevmash plant in 2006, however, the Rosatom’s leadership did not meet the construction pace. Therefore, further work was carried out already at the Baltic plant. But then there were a lot of problems. The plant itself was under the control of USC, whose management announced that it was ready to finish the construction, but this would require about 7 billion rubles. Rosatom offered a total of less than 1 billion. Therefore, at the moment, according to experts, FAPP readiness is no more than 65 percent. Nevertheless, analysts have no doubt that over the next three years, the Akademik Lomonosov station will be ready, that is, fully completed, tested, and quite possibly even delivered to the place of power generation.
The management of Rosatom states that it intends to launch floating nuclear power plants into mass production. But the problem is not in their desires and aspirations, but in whether Russian shipbuilding is able to build the necessary number of floating nuclear power plants so that they are produced on time and of high quality. In this matter, not so much funding plays a major role, as the physical capabilities of shipbuilders to build floating stations in series, because construction can be done only at two enterprises: the Baltic plant, which built all nuclear-powered icebreakers in Soviet times, and Sevmash, which is engaged in the construction of nuclear power plants. submarines. Each of these shipyards constantly has full volumes of defense orders and orders for the construction of ships of the Arctic class. Therefore, it seems that the production of floating nuclear power plants will not be a priority at these enterprises. And this may lead to the fact that there will be no place for the Russian floating nuclear power plants on the world market, because Japanese, Korean and Chinese nuclear projects may well appear.
It should also be noted that at present India is interested in floating stations, which, according to some sources, intends to invest in the construction of the first installation of the order 140-180 million dollars. In addition to her, China is also interested in the project, which has a desire to make corps for them. Indonesia, the states of the African continent and the Persian Gulf are not far behind these states.
Still, there are problems. And last but not least, a very significant financing of the project, as mentioned above, is the cornerstone. In addition, the big question is the safety of FAPP. The developers, of course, claim that the project was subjected to strict state environmental impact assessment and obtained a license from Gosatomnadzor. In addition, the security system at the station is greatly enhanced. However, there are opponents who quite reasonably point out that the construction of buildings to ensure the safety of the station, funds should be allocated to their local budgets, and the question is whether there will be enough money in the place of use for this.
Another important problem is the use of uranium. Enriching it in reactors reaches 90 percent, although the developers insist that in the floating nuclear power plant this figure will leave no more than 60 percent. However, this amount is quite enough to interest extremists, if, moreover, to take into account that the stations will be located in not the most stable regions in the world.
Thus, it cannot be argued that the FNPP project is extremely positive, since it has a number of negative points, and it is too early to talk about its future.
At the same time, Russian officials are quite optimistic about the future. So, in particular, according to Sergey Kirienko, head of the Federal Atomic Energy Agency, the construction of floating nuclear thermal power plants is promising not only for Russia, but also for the world as a whole. He also notes that Russians have advantages over other manufacturers due to the reliability and safety of Soviet reactor plants. Kiriyenko is convinced that floating stations are much safer than land-based NPPs, because they have a lot of protection levels.
Kiriyenko is fully supported by the Deputy General Director of Rosenergoatom, Sergey Krysov, who notes that the 20 states have already become interested in the Russian project, and Russia is ready to start negotiations with them, but only after the first power unit is ready. According to him, the big interest is caused by the fact that the construction period of the floating nuclear power plant is much less than the ground ones. In addition, the floating station is able to withstand a storm of 7-8 points.
Therefore, at present, in order to successfully implement the project in the world, a working group of representatives of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Rosatom and Rosenergoatom is analyzing international legislation and the internal legal framework of some states. And what will come of all this - time will tell ...
Materials used:
http://expert.ru/2012/10/15/uderzhalas-na-plavu/
http://newsdiscover.net/news/read/Plavuchie_AES_stolknulis_s_trudnostjami.html
http://www.proatom.ru/modules.php?name=News&file=article&sid=3438
http://www.iip.ru/professional-opinion/intervyu-direktora-zao-kirov-energomash-mihaila-sidorova-o-stroitelstve-semi-plavuchih-atomnyh-teploelektrostanciy-pates-dlya-kompleksnogo-elektro--i-teplosnabjeniya-izolirovannyh-potrebiteley/
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