Russia to build floating Arctic nuclear stations

[anon]

Russia is planning a fleet of floating and submersible nuclear power stations to exploit Arctic oil and gas reserves, causing widespread alarm among environmentalists.

A prototype floating nuclear power station being constructed at the SevMash shipyard in Severodvinsk is due to be completed next year. Agreement to build a further four was reached between the Russian state nuclear corporation, Rosatom, and the northern Siberian republic of Yakutiya in February.

The 70-megawatt plants, each of which would consist of two reactors on board giant steel platforms, would provide power to Gazprom, the oil firm which is also Russia's biggest company. It would allow Gazprom to power drills needed to exploit some of the remotest oil and gas fields in the world in the Barents and Kara seas. The self-propelled vessels would store their own waste and fuel and would need to be serviced only once every 12 to 14 years.

In addition, designers are known to have developed submarine nuclear-powered drilling rigs that could allow eight wells to be drilled at a time.

Russia to build floating Arctic nuclear power stations | World news | The Observer

[slikrapid]

just what the world needs, polluting some of the last relatively untouched parts of the Earth, let me quote some lyrics on the subject:

"
Another oil spill
Atomic waste displaced
Another forest dies
A Hell on Earth, what we create
"

self-propelled, self-maintained, self-illusion

[SealLion]

Ya, I don't really like the sound of that either. It does portray the message of not just only greed to exploit a geographic area that is very, very fragile with respect to the migration of arctic wildlife and other habitat but also the idea that our planet is basically a 'factory' for humankinds benefit.

Granted, I can understand our need and desire for energy reserves, but what happened to the research and exploitation of alternative energy sources.

Nuclear energy is very safe. It's not unsafe as is the common perception; however, what about the migration of icebergs and their potential collision with the platforms considering these things are going to be nuclear powered??