MOSCOW (AP) — Russia's first floating nuclear power plant has sailed to its destination in the nation's northeast, a project that environmentalists have criticized as unsafe.
The Akademik Lomonosov is a 140-meter (459-foot) long towed platform that carries two 35-megawatt nuclear reactors. On Friday, it set out from the Arctic port of Murmansk on the Kola Peninsula on a three-week journey to Pevek on the Chukotka Peninsula more than 4,900 kilometers (about 2,650 nautical miles) east.
Its purpose is to provide power for the area, replacing the Bilibino nuclear power plant on Chukotka that is being decommissioned.
Environmentalists have criticized the project as inherently dangerous and a threat to the pristine Arctic region. Russia's state nuclear corporation Rosatom has dismissed those concerns, insisting that the floating nuclear plant is safe to operate.
