Russia as an "energy superpower" is usually a avoided word (in Russia), but in atomic energy – certainly. Suffice it to say that on 22 atomic power plants built abroad, 18 build Russians.
Similarly, Rosatom is simply a leader in tiny reactors – he already has experience with 20 tiny reactors. besides a very loud model present SMR It's not fresh to him. The first has worked in Russia for 3 years. It is simply a reactor on a ship “Lomonosov AcademicIt’s okay. ” The Russians have experience – they started designing tiny atomic reactors in the 1970s. For Navy purposes, later icebreakers whose awesome fleet is being built by Rosatom. Now work is underway to adjust the parameters to the needs of civilian energy.
The Lomonosov dormitory operates in utmost conditions – it is simply a atomic power plant (or precisely a heat plant) located the northernmost. And feel it. There is the king of hurricanes “already” – the strongest constant wind in the world. erstwhile it blows, it will not stand on its feet, you gotta crawl to decision from place to place in the city, and the pier built must be reinforced, predicting a constant wind of powerful force.
The ship is large: 144.4 metres long, 30 m wide, 10 m high. 69 people work on it. It has 2 reactors (KLT-40), supplying 64 MW of electricity (net, 70 gross) and 300 MW of heat. That's adequate for a 100,000-pound city. any are much smaller, but atomic energy is intended to fuel the improvement of the region. After modernization, it can besides conduct the process of desalination of water and deliver 240 million litres of water per day. Its economy is besides that it replaces installations requiring 200 000 tonnes of coal (or 100 000 tonnes of fuel oil) per year.
His work is planned for 35-40 years, with an yearly renovation, but all 12 years he must be replaced with another ship, and this 1 towed for renovation.
Pewek is simply a port that utilized to be a russian gulag, now plays a key function in building a large task of the Northern Maritime Way. Free of ice for only 4 months, however, powered by Lomonosov, it will be the gateway to Chukota, rich in gold, silver, copper, lithium and many another natural materials. In the next year, it will power the mining of gold on the Majskoje deposit and tin from the Pyrkaj deposit.
Lightly with the “Lamonosov” (project 20870), it was not, the task started in 2000 erstwhile it was commissioned to be built in Archangelsk (SewMasz). The construction started only after 7 years, and erstwhile the keel was laid under the ship in Siewierodwinsk, a year later the construction was moved to St. Petersburg, where the keel was laid again. However, it was built rapidly – on 1 July 2010 the ship was completed. The first reactor was delivered in May and the second in August 2009. However, their installation was completed in October 2013 – it lasted as long as 4 years.
The location besides changed and yet replaced the tiny (48 MW) Bilibino atomic power plant in the town of Pewek, Chukotka. It was connected to the energy strategy (island) on December 19, 2019 (three years ago), and began working in May with full power, and in June began to supply Pewek with heat.
The full lasted for 13 years (2007-2020) to realize how long it takes to overcome the difficulties in atomic energy. The apparent conclusion is that it must have a unchangeable improvement environment. And Russia provides it.
The cost of specified a venture is huge, at the end it was estimated at about half a billion dollars, of which 20% cost coastal infrastructure. erstwhile calculating the cost of the power plant (US$400 million), nearly $6,000 for 1 kW of electricity comes out, which is precisely the same as the Polish acquisition from Westinghouse. However, the first plans predicted over 200 million.
The first Russian plans referred to 7 specified ships operating in 2015. However, as you can see, the case goes on much longer. The plans, for the world's atomic manufacture as a whole, are ambitious and promising, but the reality is glistening and the implementation takes a lot more time. It's a standard, the only question is who can withstand specified long investment cycles with specified powerful investments, counted in hundreds of millions of dollars, if not billions. The Russians can do it.
On the next realizations of tiny atomic energy, soon.
Andrzej Szczęsniak
photo public domain
Think Poland, No. 51-52 (18-25.12.2022)
