Over the next three years, RUB11.2bn ($144m) will be allocated to complete construction of Russia’s small floating nuclear power plant (FNPP), the Akademik Lomonosov, and and to build the infrastructure at its base in the city of Pevek, Chukotka, according to the appendix to the Ministry of Energy’s order approving nuclear utility Rosenergoatom’s investment programme for 2016-2018. The total cost of the construction project of the FNPP will be RUB37.4bn. Rosenergoatom’s investment programme provides for funding of the FNPP’s of RUB2.8bn for 2016, RUB5.4bn for 2017, and RUB3.1bn 2018 for. Commissioning of the vessel is planned for 2019.
Of the total, in 2016, RUB1bn ($14.5m) will be allocated from the federal budget for the project, according to the administration of the Chukotka Autonomous District (CAD). CAD governor Roman Kopin told an energy supply meeting on 23 March that implementation of theproject was being jointly co-ordinated by the federal, regional, and municipal authorities and economic organisations. Pavel Ignatov, Rosenergoatom’s director for strategy and special project management, plans were on schedule. "By the beginning of 2018 we will have the power unit, and it will be ready for transportation to its base," he said. The coastal and hydraulic structures will be built in the city of Pevek and the selection of contractors has been completed. Work will begin shortly on the main facilities, including the sea berth, and will be completed by 2019.
The Akademik Lomonosov project,which began in 2006 has faced a series of difficulties. Its construction began at Sevmash in Northwest Russia, but in 2009 was moved to the Baltic Shipyard in St Petersburg in face of financial difficulties. It was then further delayed by bankruptcy proceedings against the Baltic Shipyard. Construction resumed when Russian United Shipbuilding Corporation bought the shipyard in May 2011. The FNPP is equipped with two KLT-40S reactors with a design capacity to 70MWe mounted on a floating barge, onshore facilities for the transmission of electricity and heat to the external network, and waterworks.
