10 Oct (NucNet): Flushing of the primary systems has been completed at Russia’s first floating nuclear power station, the Akademik Lomonosov, which is under construction at Baltiysky Zavod JSC (the Baltic Shipyard) in St Petersburg, nuclear operator Rosenergoatom said on 9 October 2017. Rosenergoatom said the operation was originally planned for November 2017 and had been completed ahead of schedule. The flushing involves pumping demineralised water through the systems of both reactors to remove construction debris. It is the last step in building the primary systems. In July 2017, Rosenergoatom said the facility was 96% complete. The Akademik Lomonosov will be the first vessel of a proposed fleet of floating plants with small pressurised water reactor units that can provide energy, heat and water to remote and arid areas of the country. The 21,000-tonne vessel will have two Russian-designed KLT-40S reactor units with an electrical power generating capacity of 35 MW each, sufficient for a city with a population of around 200,000 people. The Akademik Lomonosov is scheduled for deployment at a site in the Arctic town of Pavek in Russia’s far northeast Chukotka region, where coastal infrastructure work began in October 2016.
