Posted on 06/23/2006 4:37:54 PM PDT by Atlantic Bridge
Russia is constructing a floating nuclear power plant for remote regions that could provide energy for coastal cities. Environmentalists warn of a catastrophe at sea. And nuclear proliferation experts point out that the ship would use weapons-grade uranium to generate electricity.
The concept is amazing. The new ship could be anchored along any coastline where there is no threat of a tsunami or hurricane. All local engineers have to do is attach a few cables and then the magic arrives: "the reactors are activated -- and there is light." Voilá, the world's mobile, boat-based nuclear reactor for the production of civilian power. That, at least, is how an enthusiastic Evgeny Kuzin, who works for the Russian utility company Malaya Energetika, pitches the ambitious project.
Last week the Russian nuclear energy company Rosenergoatom and the Sevmach military shipyard in Severodvinsk on the Arctic Sea signed a contract to build the world's first floating nuclear power plant. At a cost of €270 million, a 140 meter long by 30 meter wide ship will be fitted with two reactors on its keel. Combined they will produce 70 megawatts of electricity, almost a twentieth of that produced by land-based plants. The Severodvinsk nuclear ship is expected to go online in 2010, but that could be just the beginning. Countries including China, India, Indonesia and states in the Persian Gulf have apparently already expressed interest.
(Excerpt) Read more at service.spiegel.de ...
It is a open invitation to terrorists or rogue nations to supply themselves with the raw material for the bomb.
I hope it has sturdy screen doors.
I agree. This is wrong on so many levels.
P.S. - send money not to build it.
This is probably not going to make it in the business world. They might combine it with desalinization and have something.
Russia ping!
I knew the Luddites would come out in force on this thread.
samadams2000 wrote:
I hope it has sturdy screen doors.
---DOn't worry, the ex captain of the Exxon Valdez will be comissioned to pilot it. Nothing to see here, move along ;)
USS Chernobyl. Not sure its that much worse than building a bunch of crappy, rusting nuclear subs, but weapons grade seems a bit extreme.
This is a pretty dumb idea. Why put the reactor in a floating hull that will have to be repaired before the reactor itself requires servicing?
Not really amazing. Westinghouse proposed a similar design thirty or so years ago before the eco-fanatics managed to kill off the domestic nuclear plant business.
The entire facility was about four square blocks and floated on just eight feet of water; anchored in multiple tension-loaded places to compensate for movement in an earthquake. In reality, a glorified cement ship.
I am not that sure. Even if the mass of the used Uraniumdioxide is less than half a ton in each reactor (this crazy boat has two) you can use it for quite a few warheads if it is 40% U235. As far as I know the prices for warheads are good in Iran and the mountains of Pakistan.
Weapons-grade uranium is more concentrated than regular uranium used for nuclear energy. That means it lasts longer and is more suitable to use in the floating nuke plant than in a regular one.
The concept is absolutely okay as long as they use a (more expensive and much heavier) reactor with low enriched uranium (about 4% U235). I am absolutely in favour of nuclear energy.
Four percent or forty percent is insignificant when it comes to using it in a nuclear weapon. You've got to get the enrichment up to > 90% U-235 to get a "boom".
It would be very expensive to deliver nukular weapon material this way.
This reactor uses 40% enriched uranium. My proposal was 4% (which is suitable in normal reactors) to make it useless for terrorists or Iranians.
If the used fuel can be securely expropriated, this is a great idea. It could be floated upriver for inland cities as well.
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