It remains unclear whether reactors will be fuelled before being towed around Scandinavia

The arrival of the first hull from China in St Petersburg took place quietly in March, and Rosatom — Russia’s state nuclear corporation — has not responded to questions from the Barents Observer on the matter.

In fact, very little information has been released about the progress of the four barges under construction, each of which will be equipped with two RITM-200M reactors. The floating nuclear power plants are ultimately destined for Cape Nagloynyn on the northern coast of Chukotka in Siberia.

Construction began at the Wison Heavy Industries yard in Nantong in August 2022. All auxiliary power systems, including the reactors themselves, are being manufactured in Russia. Installation work on the first barge is expected to continue until 2027.

The barge that arrived from China in March is currently moored at Baltic Shipyard alongside the hull of the future icebreaker Chukotka. Both the icebreaker and the power plant will use the RITM-200, the first post-Soviet maritime reactor designed for civilian use. The RITM-200 is a more powerful and efficient successor to the KLT-40S reactor used in earlier-generation icebreakers and in Russia’s first floating nuclear power plant, the Akademik Lomonosov.

A key question — both for residents of St Petersburg and for neighbouring Nordic and Baltic countries — is when the reactors will be loaded with uranium fuel.

A similar issue arose in 2017, when local protests and pressure from Norway prompted Rosatom to abandon plans to fuel the reactors of the Akademik Lomonosov in St Petersburg. Instead, in spring 2018, the plant was towed through the Baltic Sea and around the Norwegian coast to Murmansk, where the uranium fuel was eventually loaded.

Low-enriched fresh uranium fuel is itself safe to handle. However, the original plans included test-running the reactors while the plant was still moored at the shipyard in St Petersburg. That would have meant towing irradiated nuclear fuel through the Baltic and around Scandinavia — a prospect that raised public concern in Norway over the risk of accidents and possible radioactive contamination of marine resources.

Rosatom CEO Alexey Likhachev eventually relented following pressure from Oslo, stating: “We will carry out the transportation through the Baltic and the Scandinavian region without nuclear fuel on board.” He added that the decision was taken in response to the wishes of countries in the Baltic-Scandinavian region.

“It will remove the existing legal conflict and act on the principle of good-neighbourly relations with our partners,” Likhachev said in 2017.

Rosatom has not responded to questions from the Barents Observer regarding the current plans.

The Barents Observer has also asked Norway’s Foreign Ministry whether Oslo will request Russia to postpone loading uranium fuel until after the power plant has been towed north along the Norwegian coast, but no response had been received by the time of publication.

Norway and Russia cooperated closely on nuclear safety for several decades, but all practical work was halted following the full-scale war in Ukraine.

The Akademik Lomonosov, Russia’s first floating nuclear power plant, is currently docked in the harbour of Pevek, where it provides heat to the town and electricity to the regional Chaun-Bilibino power grid.

Dmitry Gorchakov, a nuclear safety adviser at the Bellona Environmental Transparency Center, believes the fuel will most likely be loaded in St Petersburg.

“I have not heard any public information about this yet. But most likely the fuel will be loaded at Baltic Shipyard, as was done for all four Arktika-class icebreakers in recent years, which use essentially the same RITM-200 reactors,” Gorchakov said in an email to the Barents Observer.

“The shipyard has extensive experience with such loading, and apparently no public outrage — as there was over Akademik Lomonosov — should be expected now.”

Environmental groups and other critics of the authorities have effectively been silenced by the regime, particularly since Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022.

Bellona is one example of an organisation that previously worked actively on nuclear safety issues from offices in both Murmansk and St Petersburg. Those offices have since been closed, and staff relocated to a new office in Vilnius, Lithuania.

Much of the electrical control equipment for the reactors on the first three barges has already been delivered to Baltic Shipyard, according to the shipbuilding publication Sudostroenie last summer.

Under the original contract between Baltic Shipyard and Rosatom, the first two floating nuclear power plants were to be delivered to Cape Nagloynyn in Chukotka in early 2027, the third in early 2028, and the fourth in early 2031.

The early 2027 deadline now appears difficult to meet. However, a late-2027 delivery could still be possible if the reactors are installed and tested during the coming winter, before the plant is towed north via Murmansk to Siberia during the Northern Sea Route sailing season in September or October 2027.

Gorchakov believes delays are likely, but not severe ones.

“Judging by many reports, the shipyard is indeed in a difficult financial situation. However, I do not expect problems and delays as serious as those experienced with Akademik Lomonosov, because the main shipyard work has already been completed by the Chinese side. The task of Baltic Shipyard is now mainly to install equipment from other contractors, rather than manufacture it or build the barge itself,” he said.

“One of the main contractors is Rosatom itself and its engineering division, and as far as I understand, the reactors should already be ready. At least a year ago, Rosatom stated that six reactors for floating nuclear power plants were already at various stages of production. So if delays occur, they are more likely to stem from shortages of other equipment supplied by third-party contractors,” Gorchakov added.

Vladimir Panov, Rosatom’s special representative for Arctic development, has also acknowledged the tight schedule for completing the four floating nuclear power plants.

“In terms of timelines, they are fully synchronised with the implementation of the Baimsky Mining and Processing Plant,” he said. “Our project is being implemented from 2028 to 2029, when it will begin operations. Accordingly, by that time, all floating power plants should already be in Chukotka and ready to transmit the required volume of electricity to consumers,” Panov told the online publication Gold & Technology.

He added that the final plant is expected to be commissioned in 2031.

Once completed, the four plants — with a total of eight reactors — will each supply 103 MWe of electricity. As the mining project requires 300 MWe, three floating nuclear power plants will be needed, while the fourth will serve as a backup during refuelling and maintenance operations.

Spent nuclear fuel will need to be replaced every three to four years and can be stored onboard in casks for a similar period. Thereafter, the highly radioactive spent fuel will be shipped to Murmansk, where Rosatomflot operates its service base for nuclear-powered icebreakers.

A special ice-class transport vessel for spent nuclear fuel is currently under construction. Transhipment operations in Murmansk — considered high-risk — are expected to increase substantially once the new fleet of icebreakers and floating nuclear power plants enters full operation in the early 2030s.

After handling and repackaging at the Murmansk base, casks containing spent nuclear fuel are transported by rail to Russia’s reprocessing plant at Mayak, near Chelyabinsk in the southern Urals.

For Rosatom, the floating nuclear power plants are not solely about meeting domestic Arctic energy needs. Russia has for years promoted such projects to potential export customers in Asia and Africa.

“Negotiations on the construction of a floating nuclear power plant in Indonesia have entered the final phase of discussions,” Rosatom CEO Alexey Likhachev told Channel One following Russian-Indonesian consultations at the Kremlin in mid-April.

Russia is also actively pursuing export discussions with several other countries, including Brazil, Argentina, Malaysia and Cuba.