Rosatom's new yard will be built north of the existing service base for nuclear-powered icebreakers on the eastern shores of the Kola Bay north of Murmansk.

Photo: Thomas Nilsen

Rosatom to begin construction of €700 million shipyard in Murmansk in 2027

Rosatom subsidiary Energoflot Murmansk is seeking a contractor to build the infrastructure for a new shipyard dedicated to outfitting floating nuclear power plants.

Thomas Nilsen Thomas Nilsen

20 October 2026 - 16:34

Russia lacks a dedicated shipyard to service its growing fleet of floating nuclear power plants. Now, with funding in place, construction is due to begin next year.

The Akademik Lomonosov, Russia’s first floating nuclear power plant, has been operating in Pevek, eastern Siberia, since 2020.

A second plant, equipped with larger reactors, is currently being outfitted at the Baltic Shipyard in St Petersburg. Three more are in the pipeline, with their hulls being built in China. All power-generation equipment, including the reactors, will be installed in Russia. The four new plants are ultimately destined for Pevek, where they will supply electricity to the Baimsky copper and gold mining and processing complex, which is under development about 400 km inland.

Although the reactors can be refuelled on site, the floating plants will eventually need to be docked for maintenance and repairs. No shipyard along the Northern Sea Route has the capacity to accommodate vessels of this size. Murmansk, with its established port infrastructure and railway connections, is the nearest suitable location.

According to RosBusinessConsulting (RBC), the new shipyard will be built north of Atomflot, the existing base for Russia’s nuclear-powered icebreaker fleet, and will have docking facilities for floating nuclear power plants. RBC, which has seen the procurement documents, reports that the contract covers the preparation, installation and commissioning of equipment and utility systems. The project also includes building road and railway connections to the site.

Rosatom’s new shipyard for floating nuclear power plants will be built on the eastern shore of Kola Bay, with Novatek’s yard for outfitting production barges for LNG projects on the Yamal Peninsula among its nearest neighbours. Railway connections already serve both Atomflot and Rosneft’s loading terminal next to the site earmarked for the new shipyard.

For Rosatom, floating nuclear power plants are not just a means of meeting domestic energy needs in the Arctic. Russia has spent years promoting the technology to potential 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 chief executive Alexey Likhachev told Channel One following Russian-Indonesian consultations at the Kremlin in mid-April.

Russia is also pursuing discussions on potential exports with several other countries, including Brazil, Argentina, Malaysia and Cuba. So far, however, the state-owned nuclear corporation has yet to secure a contract for a floating nuclear power plant abroad.

Rosatomflot (FSUE Atomflot), the Rosatom subsidiary that operates the nuclear-powered icebreaker fleet in Murmansk, is heavily sanctioned internationally by Western nations and allies due to Russia's invasion of Ukraine.