TVEL A.Ş., the fuel company of the Russian State Nuclear Energy Corporation Rosatom, supplied nuclear fuel to the 1st Power Unit of the floating nuclear power plant Akademik Lomonosov operating in the city of Pevek in the Chukotka Autonomous Region.
The fuel was delivered to Russia’s northernmost city via the Northern Sea Route.
The first replacement of spent nuclear fuel with fresh fuel at Akademik Lomonosov is planned to begin by 2024. TVEL’s Machine Building Plant (MSZ), located in the city of Elektrostal in the Moscow Region, produces fuel for the floating nuclear power plant Akademik Lomonosov, as well as for all Russian nuclear icebreakers.
Akademik Lomonosov, the world’s only floating nuclear power plant, is equipped with two icebreaker-type KLT-40S reactors. Unlike standard large land-based reactors, where fuel rods must be partially replaced every 12 to 18 months, these reactors are refueled every few years by completely evacuating the reactor core and loading the reactor with fresh fuel.
The cores of the KLT-40 reactors of the Akademik Lomonosov floating power unit have a number of advantages compared to reference reactors. These advantages include increasing the time between refueling to 3 to 3.5 years, thanks to the cassette type core used for the first time, and reducing the cost of the fuel component by one and a half times. Experience in operating floating power plants forms the basis of reactor designs for the latest series 22220 nuclear icebreakers. Three icebreakers of this type have been launched so far.
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