Where would it be safer to locate a nuclear power plant, on land or at sea ? This question has been in the minds of people after three nuclear power plant reactors at Fukushima , Japan were severely damaged due to earthquake and tsunami in 2011. This incident led the nuclear power engineers to think that placing them on land is not such a good idea and shifting them to sea would be safer.
Marine power plants are cheaper to make in shipyards and much safer to run on a floating platform . A reactor at sea would never run out of emergency cooling water . The Fukushima reactor meltdown happened due to this problem. Additionally the effect of a tsunami wave 10 NMor more from the coastline is negligible. The electricity generated would be transmitted by a submarine cable . In case of an emergency natural or man made, the reactor is sufficiently far from densely populated areas.
Russia is already constructing “ Akademik Lomonosov” named after a famous academician Mikhail Lomonosov , as the first Russian floating power station at a Baltic shipyard .It is scheduled to be launched this year and towed to Pevek a port in Russia’s far east and will come into operation in 2019. It has on board two 35MW reactors . It’s length is 144 m , breadth 30 m and has a displacement of 21,500 tonnes. It has accommodation for 70 crew members.The total cost is estimated to be around 500 million USD.
China is partnering with Russia to jointly build another floating nuclear power plant which indicates that this concept has already found acceptance. However typhoons in the south china sea can cause havoc to these floating installations . To weather such storms a new type of anchoring system has been developed which will keep the ship’s bow always heading into the wind, giving it the best chance of riding out any storm that nature cares to throw at it. The ships bow are also built high in order to cut through the waves.
Ships operating in the vicinity will need to keep a safe distance from these floating nuclear power plants(FNPP’s) whose positions would soon appear on nautical charts probably with a new symbol!