Page 10: of Offshore Engineer Magazine (Mar/Apr 2022)

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LEADING OFF FLOATING NUCLEAR POWER neer Rosatom commenced operations of the world’s new- tion for high costs and long construction schedules. A new est commercial ? oating nuclear power plant, the FNPP generation of small and micro modular reactors seeks to

Akademik Lomosov, in 2020. The company is currently address these barriers. building four more next generation FNPPs. Small in physical size, with an electrical output of less

China, South Korea, Denmark, UK and the U.S. are all than 300 MW, the smaller footprints of these new gen- home to companies developing FNPP concepts. eration reactors make them suited to decentralized marine based applications.

New Technologies Aim to Address Some

The modularized approach allows for economies of scale as these reactors will be built in series in controlled factory of the Key Concerns on Nuclear Power

Traditional site built nuclear power plants have a reputa- environments and be moved by road, rail or barge. Put- ting the nuclear plant on a ? oating structure allows power and heat to be deployed where it is needed. In the case of

FNPPs, the reactor modules are moved to large and expe- rienced shipyards.

In these offshore and marine yards, quality, safety, sched- ule and cost are readily controlled given that the plant’s construction and a large proportion of commissioning are performed using standardized equipment under strictly controlled conditions. This approach minimizes the risk of labor availability in remote areas and unforeseen ground

The reactor pressure vessel aboard the STURGIS, the Army’s retired ? oating nuclear power plant recently decommissioned, is carefully lifted in order to be placed in the specially designed shielded shipping container to its left at the end of May 2017.

Undated image of STURGIS operating in the Panama Canal Zone

Photos courtesy U.S. Army Corp of Engineers 10 OFFSHORE ENGINEER OEDIGITAL.COM