Before I start describing the world’s first floating nuclear power plant, I would like to outline the future of the world we will probably live in. No doubt that it will be a world of electric cars – per IEA estimates between 40 and 70 million of them will be on the roads by 2025. Power grids will transfer electricity in diverse energy systems with growing domination of renewable energy sources.
According to forecasts by 2050 renewables will be set to generate half of all global energy production, with coal production shrinking to just 11% to meet our environmental targets. And we will definitely need a substantial energy storage capacity to balance the supply and demand for power and transfer electricity from the place of its production to the place of consumption. And of course, we will have to invest a lot – both money and effort – in bringing the energy infrastructure and energy industry to the next level meeting the demand of the new energy paradigm.
But what do we have at present? Unreliable, insufficient access to energy is still among the Top-5 development constraints for any business, i.e. there are more than one billion people without access to electricity all over the world. Solving this this problem is not an easy thing to do, as building efficient and reliable energy systems might be too costly, risky or complicated for many countries and here is where action has to be taken by experienced industry players to provide support and assistance needed.
We in Rosatom believe that there is a solution to this issue, and it can change the landscape dramatically – a solution that will let us bring power to where it is needed most without any heavy burdens normally associated with capacity new build and plant operation.
These new solutions shall provide for plug and play project implementation as well as multiple options for supplier-customer relationships, they shall be easily connected to any grid and integrated with other clean power sources to build a sustainable energy system. Last but not least, it is crucial for us to offer our customers the solutions that are cost-effective, i.e. solutions with an acceptable price per kilowatt-hour.
Many existing market solutions do meet most of these requirements, however still have certain limitations. Thus, some baseload power sources proving for stable electricity supply are compromised by instability of fuel supply and impossibility to forecast fuel prices. These solutions cannot eliminate greenhouse gas emissions either. On the other hand intermittent power sources can be cost-effective enough but the grid and the electricity supply would be unstable.
Thus, we have come to understand that only nuclear can be a stable source of power with easily predictable prices and minimal dependence on fuel costs. And nuclear plants do not emit greenhouse gases. So, we have decided to combine advantages of nuclear power as a green energy source with the concept of transportability. We needed a power source that will be cost-effective, clean, stable and could be fast delivered to the customer. This is how the idea of a floating nuclear power plant has crystallized.
The floating nuclear power plant (FNPP) will be able to supply base load power for 60 years. Its advantages are as follows:
For reference:
The Akademik Lomonosov floating nuclear power plant (FNPP) is equipped with two marine reactor units KLT-40S with electrical capacity of 70MW and thermal capacity of about 170 MW per hour. With 300 crew members, it weighs 20,000 tons and has a 40-year service life that can be extended. Akademik Lomonosov has a 12-year fuel cycle and uses 20% enriched uranium. At the end of July 2018 fuel loading operation was started at Akademik Lomonosov FNPP. According to current plans, world’s first FNNP to be towed to Pevek (Chukotka region of Russia) and to start electricity production there in 2019.
The next generation floating power plant is based on a RITM-200M reactor design. It will also generate heat and electricity and desalinate water, but it will be 25 meters shorter and 5 meters narrower than Akademik Lomonosov. The draught of this upgraded FNPP is therefore reduced by 9,000 tons. By contrast, its installed capacity is increased by nearly 30%, from 77 MW to 100MW. The refueling cycle is extended from 3 to 10 years. Having a 60-year design life, the upgraded FNPP can be either towed or used as a self-propelled ship.
The essence of our FNNP business model lies in its lifecycle that we are planning to implement. We will use a fleet of floating nuclear power plants. This will almost instantly provide customers with access to electricity.
As you see, the FNPP business model is different from that of large-scale nuclear power plants. However, it does little justice to each solution to pit them one against the other. We strongly believe that nuclear power is a reliable and stable baseload source, however, it can manifest itself in a number of technical solutions, depending on local specificities, for example, geographic ones. We plan to construct several FNNPs in advance and have them instantly available. Some of them will be prefabricated and ready for final assembling. Customers would not be forced to sign decade-long power purchase agreements (PPAs), the plant delivery terms would be much more flexible in comparison to any land-based power plant – we are sure that FNPPs will make the access to the advantages of nuclear power much easier.
We are open to equity partnerships. Customers may become co-owners of a nuclear power plant. This might drive shipbuilders to form global partnerships. Being a nuclear technology vendor, Rosatom can be very flexible in forming partnerships to produce the vessel part of floating NPPs. We are looking forward to a future where FNPPs play a major role in bringing the advantages of nuclear power to customers.
