German media: Russia has a big trump card in the Arctic
Moscow is investing a lot of money in the development of infrastructure in the Arctic, it is fighting for supremacy in the region. At the same time, Russia has a major trump card, which helps the implementation of the plan, according to the German TV company ZDF in its report.
The Russians will need a lot of electricity to develop the endless Arctic expanses. Now they have one floating nuclear thermal power plant (FNPP) "Akademik Lomonosov" and it is planned to create four more similar power plants. The world's only floating nuclear power plant since September 2019 has been located in Pevek in Chukotka, the northernmost city of the Russian Federation.
On the coast of the East Siberian Sea there is “Akademik Lomonosov” - it is impossible not to notice it. It is 144 meters long and 30 meters wide. It was towed here from Murmansk and now it provides the city with heat and electricity.
- said the journalist Christian Zemm, who made a 12-hour flight from Moscow to Pevek and visited the NPP.
Russian engineers are very proud of their creation. The floating power plant is mobile, it can be built at a shipyard, and then moved wherever it is required. This is a whole town with a huge number of passages and stairs. At the floating power plant, where two mini-reactors are installed, only 200 specialists work, which provide energy to 100 thousand people (electric power - 70 MW, thermal power - 50 Gcal / h).
At the same time, ecologists call the floating nuclear power plant "floating Chernobyl" and are skeptical about the project. They believe that the main threat is that the structure cannot move independently, but it can be crushed by ice. Few people live in Chukotka, but there are many minerals in the region, and Pevek is a strategic place where Russia demonstrates its technological opportunities for the development of the Far North.
We're going to the gold mine. Four hours by car. Ice smooth surface. The mine also receives electricity from the floating power plant. Last year, four tons of gold were mined in this place alone.
- said the journalist.
The entire Arctic is still little explored. But it is potentially incredibly rich in minerals. In addition, the Northern Sea Route is of great importance for the Russian Federation; Moscow wants to turn it into a world-class trade route. Therefore, the Russians are investing in infrastructure and building icebreakers to facilitate navigation in Arctic waters, where there are no pirates, summed up the media from Germany.
- Elena Dider/wikimedia.org
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