Monthly Highlights from the Russian Arctic, March 2024
In this news digest, we monitor events that impact the environment in the Russian Arctic. Our main focus lies in identifying the factors that contribute to pollution risks and climate change.
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Publish date: November 1, 2007
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The Yakutia region was proposed. Sakha is the largest republic in the Russian Federation. In the Yakutia region it spans three time zones, but has less than one million inhabitants. Rosatom said the agreement, signed by Sergei Kiriyenko and Sakha President Vyacheslav Shtyrov, was aimed towards developing an investment project for the construction of a floating nuclear power plant in order to support later infrastructure projects in the Arctic north of Sakha.
Currently the cost to generate electricity from imported fossil fuels in towns like Tiksi, Ust-Kuiga and Yurung-Khaya is 12 roubles per kWh ($0.49/kWh). By comparison, the hydroelectric dams that supply the south of Sakha generate power for 1.1 roubles per kWh ($0.04/kWh). Cross-subsidies largely level out the cost to consumers, but officials believe the high price of power to be a major limiting factor for development in the north where there are large mineral deposits and potential for a greater fishing industry.
The proposed solution is a barge-mounted nuclear power unit which would provide electricity and heat to settlements not currently connected to the grid. Rosatom said the unit could employ ABV-6M reactors with a capacity of around 18 MWe to provide both electricity and heat. These were developed by OKBM and would be built at Zvezdochka Engineering Plant in Severodvinsk, near to the Sevmash facility where the first floating nuclear power plant is under construction. That unit is based on two KLT-40S reactors, as used in icebreaking ships, and will help to power the shipyard itself with 70 MWe.
The Sakha government and Rosatom both agreed to seek out investors to take part in a public-private partnership to complete the project and to begin feasibility studies and site investigations. Support has been secured from the Russian Investment Fund. Officials expect to commission the power plant around 2013-5, world-nuclear-news.org reported.
In this news digest, we monitor events that impact the environment in the Russian Arctic. Our main focus lies in identifying the factors that contribute to pollution risks and climate change.
A survey of events in the field of nuclear and radiation safety relating to Russia and Ukraine.
Russian president Vladimir Putin has told the United Nations atomic energy watchdog that Russia plans to restart Ukraine’s embattled Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant, currently occupied by Russian troops and technicians, fueling worries about a serious nuclear accident on the front lines of a grinding military conflict.
Wednesday, April 10, 2024 | Brussels, Belgium – Today, the European Parliament approved the newly revised Construction Products regulation (CPR)...