Leasing of Nuclear Power Plants With Using Floating Technologies

Abstract

The proposal to organize and realize the international program on leasing of Nuclear Power Plant (NPP) reactor compartments is brought to the notice of potential partners. The proposal is oriented to the construction of new NPPs or to replacement of worked-out reactor units of the NPPs in operation on the sites situated near water area and to the use of afloat technologies for construction, mounting and transportation of reactor units as a Reactor Compartment Block Module (RCBM). According to the offered project the RCBM is fabricated in factory conditions at the largest Russian defense shipbuilding plant — State Unitary Enterprise “Industrial Association SEVMASHPREDPRIYATIE” (SEVMASH) in the city of Severodvinsk of the Arkhangelsk region. After completion of assembling, testing and preliminary licensing the RCBM is given buoyancy by means of hermetic sealing and using pontoons and barges. The RCBM delivery to the NPP site situated near water area is performed by sea route. The RCBM is brought to the place of its installation with the use of appropriate hydraulic structures (canals, shipping locks), then is lowered on the basement constructed beforehand and incorporated into NPP scheme, of which the components are installed in advance. Floating means can be detached from the RCBM and used repeatedly for other RCBMs. Further procedure of NPP commissioning and its operation is carried out according to traditional method by power company in the framework of RCBM leasing with enlisting the services of firm-manufacturer’s specialists either to provide reactor plant operation and concomitant processes or to perform author’s supervision of operation. After completion of lifetime and reactor unloading the RCBM is dismantled with using the same afloat technology and taken away from NPP site to sea area entirely, together with its structures (reactor vessel, heat exchangers, pumps, pipelines and other equipment). Then RCBM is transported by shipping route to a firm-manufacturer, for subsequent reprocessing, utilization and storage. Nuclear fuel and radioactive wastes are removed from NPP site also. Use of leasing method removes legal problems connected with the transportation of radioactive materials through state borders as the RCBM remains a property of the state-producer at all stages of its life cycle.