ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Thursday, March 14, 1996 TAG: 9603150004
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: A-3 EDITION: METRO
DATELINE: MOSCOW
SOURCE: Associated Press
Russia is developing a floating nuclear power plant and plans to put one into operation in the Far East in five years, the director of an energy company said Wednesday.
The plant will consist of two small reactors aboard a barge in the East Siberian Sea, Alexander Polushkin, head of the Malaya Energetika company, told the ITAR-Tass news agency.
The floating nuclear plant will be delivered to its destination, the town of Pevek in the Chukotka region, ready for operation.
Every 13 years the plant will have to be towed to Murmansk - about a 2,500-mile trip, one-way - for repair and fuel reloading, Polushkin said.
Polushkin said several countries have expressed interest in the project, including China, Indonesia and the Philippines.
Russia's nuclear power industry has raised safety concerns in the United States and other countries.
The country's 28 nuclear power plants supply about 10 percent of its electricity. But Russia still has three reactors designed for plutonium production, and all were built more than 30 years ago. Since then, significant safety improvements have been made in plant design.
The old design resembles that of the Chernobyl nuclear power plant, site of the world's biggest commercial nuclear disaster in 1986.
Nuclear power plant construction in the former Soviet Union fell following Chernobyl, but Russian officials recently announced they were considering five new plants.
LENGTH: Short : 38 linesby CNB