In the News: July 1996

ByRod Adams

Russian Floating Power Stations

(June 11, 1996: Source-NucNet, an Internet service of the European Nuclear Agency) – Officials at the Kurchatov Atomic Energy Institute in Moscow have announced that the technical design stage for a series of floating nuclear power stations is now complete.

Each power plant will consist of two 70 Mwe pressurized water reactor plants based on the proven KLT-40 ice breaker engine design. The plants will produce electricity and possibly heat for water distillation.

The proposed market for the plants is the remote areas of Russia where there is no electrical power grid and where fuel deliveries are prohibitively expensive because of distance and obstructions like ice. Spokesmen claim that the projected life of the plants will be forty years with a 13 year refueling cycle. Projected break-even time for the $250 million plants is 10 years.

Areas where the plants might be best employed include areas near the Arctic Ocean and the Bering Strait. Negotiations are also underway in China and the Philippines, both of which have remote areas close to large bodies of water that could make use of the plants. With a desalination capability, the potential market expands to include areas of the Middle East and Latin America.

Japan to Provide Pressure Vessels to China

(June 19, 1996: Source-NucNet, an Internet service of the European Nuclear Agency) – China has cancelled a previously signed contract with a Korean consortium led by Hanjung to provide pressure vessels and other key reactor components to Qinshan units 2 and 3.

The decision was tied to the failure of the Korean government to provide the promised export credits to back up the sale.

The Chinese have now signed an agreement with Mitsubishi, a Japanese heavy industrial firm. Under the agreement, Mitsubishi will provide the reactor vessel for Qishan unit 2 and will transfer technology to the Shanghai Boiler Works that will enable the company to construct the pressure vessel for unit 3. This arrangement is similar to the one agreed to by the Koreans and marks another step in the Chinese goal of being able to construct the major components of large nuclear power stations on their own.

Mitsubishi will also supply coolant pumps and charging pumps for both units. Framatome will supply the reactor controls and instrumentation systems, and other components will be supplied by a variety of manufacturers from China and other countries.

Rod Adams
Rod Adams

Rod Adams is Managing Partner of Nucleation Capital, a venture fund that invests in advanced nuclear, which provides affordable access to this clean energy sector to pronuclear and impact investors. Rod, a former submarine Engineer Officer and founder of Adams Atomic Engines, Inc., which was one of the earliest advanced nuclear ventures, is an atomic energy expert with small nuclear plant operating and design experience. He has engaged in technical, strategic, political, historic and financial analysis of the nuclear industry, its technology, regulation, and policies for several decades through Atomic Insights, both as its primary blogger and as host of The Atomic Show Podcast. Please click here to subscribe to the Atomic Show RSS feed. To join Rod's pronuclear network and receive his occasional newsletter, click here.

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