The Nuclear Week was organized in Astana at EXPO-2017, in the Russian Pavilion featuring Rosatom’s nuclear technologies. “A lot of people ask a question of what the energy of the future is. We are sure that an ideal energy mix of the future is a combination of green energy sources, and a great number of international experts support our view. Nuclear power plays, and will continue playing, a great role in this energy mix. Nuclear is not just power. Our exposition shows clearly how nuclear technologies improve everyday life by contributing to such areas as medicine, agriculture, desalination and water treatment. Nuclear power is also used in space exploration bringing the future closer”, said Kirill Komarov, Rosatom’s First Deputy CEO for Corporate Development and International Business at the opening ceremony of the Nuclear Week.
Georgy Kalamanov, Commissioner General of the Russian Section at EXPO-2017 and Deputy Minister of Industry and Trade, noted that Rosatom was carrying out 34 international nuclear construction projects, as well as projects in nuclear medicine and new energy sources, thus fully fitting into the theme of Astana’s EXPO.
Guests attending the opening ceremony were invited to the Russian Pavilion featuring Rosatom’s temporary exposition devoted to nuclear energy as ‘a driver of the future’. They made a virtual tour of a Generation 3+ reactor unit and had an opportunity to see how nuclear technologies improve the quality of life by offering innovative solutions for agriculture, medicine and desalination, and also how the future is brought closer by the use of nuclear in space exploration, supercomputers, closed fuel cycle, superconductors, and thermonuclear power.
Rosatom’s permanent exposition in the Russian Pavilion presents an innovative Leader nuclear icebreaker. Rosatom has long supported navigation in the Arctic waters and development of the region with the world’s only nuclear fleet. Visitors to the pavilion have a chance to see the icebreaker design presented on a radial 3D display. Making a year-round navigation in the Arctic possible irrespective of weather conditions, Leader is a true icebreaker of the future, capable of traveling through two-meter Arctic ice at the speed of 10 knots and considerably reducing the shipment time by the North Sea.
The pavilion also features a 3D model of Akademik Lomonosov, the world’s first floating nuclear power plant (FNPP). This is the first ever towable low-capacity power unit designed as a decentralized source of power for remote areas. The FNPP can be used to supply power to settlements and production facilities located far away from the grid.
Akademik Lomonosov is now under construction at the Baltic Shipyard in Saint Petersburg. It is planned to start generating power in the port of Pevek (Chukotka Peninsula, Russia) already in 2019. The floating unit is 96% complete.
