Danish startup Seaborg Technologies says it can make affordable nuclear electricity a viable alternative to fossil fuels. It says its floating barges fitted with advanced nuclear reactors could provide electricity across the developing world as soon as 2025.
This news follows the success of the world’s first floating nuclear power plant (the Akademik Lomonosov) to go online in 40 years. It was built in a St Petersburg shipyard in Russia, then towed to and docked at Pevek, Chukotka, in the country’s remote Far East in December 2019.
Rosatom, the project’s developer, and Russia’s state nuclear corporation said: “These small nuclear reactors can operate non-stop without the need for refueling for three to five years, thereby considerably reducing the cost of electricity generation. While variable renewable energy installations such as wind and solar for such areas require expensive and polluting diesel back-up or costly energy storage, small nuclear power plants ensure uninterrupted electricity supply even for energy-intensive users.
The reactors have the potential to work particularly well in regions with extended coastlines, power supply shortages, and limited access to electrical grids, and the plant can be delivered to any point along a coast and connected to existing electrical grids.” Read more…
