Russia to build world's first floating nuclear reactor

Russia to build world's first floating nuclear reactor

Reactor will be built by the Sevmash plant in the Arctic port of Severodvinsk beginning next year said Sergei Obozov, head of the state-controlled Rosenergoatom consortium in charge of nuclear power plants. It will provide heating and electricity to Sevmash, the AP reports.

Atomic Power Agency head Sergei Kiriyenko denied that the reactor would pose a security or safety risk, telling the ITAR-Tass news agency that "there will be no floating Chernobyl," and that the Sevmash plant, the only Russian plant where atomic submarines are manufactured, was sufficiently well guarded.

Obozov said the reactor was the perfect solution for supplying energy to remote Arctic sites. Russian authorities are looking at 11 other possible sites for such a reactor, he said.