Moored off the small Arctic town of Pevek is the Akademik Lomonosov — the world’s first floating nuclear power plant and a sign of how President Vladimir Putin’s ambitions for Russia’s far east are taking shape.
This port on the northern coast of Siberia was once notorious as a Soviet gulag. These days it is part of Moscow’s plan to open up a major shipping lane through the Arctic and bring natural resources within easier reach.
Pevek’s harbour is only ice-free for four months a year but is intended to become a hub for commercial shipping on the so-called Northern Sea Route as climate change gradually eases the passage through the Arctic. And the power provided by the Akademik Lomonosov is intended to help Pevek become a gateway to Chukotka, a region close to Alaska and rich in gold, silver, copper, lithium and other metals.
“Without the NSR, without the port, there would be no Pevek,” said Maxim Zhurbin, Pevek’s deputy mayor, during an interview in the town in October.
Few in Pevek seem concerned by the nuclear reactor in the harbor.
“Fear? We have none. Perhaps Russians are not afraid of anything anymore.
We have seen and lived through everything. We have to be optimistic,” said Igor Ranav, a locally born businessman. “We were told the plant is made with the latest technology and it is safe, and I hope so.”
“It is excellent that it is here,” said Natalia Koveshnikova, a retired accountant who has lived in Pevek most of her life. “It is the first year we have had heating and hot water year-round. ”
The development of the NSR is in the hands of Rosatom, the state nuclear corporation. As well as commissioning the Akademik Lomonosov, Rosatom is also in charge of nuclear-powered icebreakers that the company expects will help to open up year-round Arctic navigation by the middle of the decade.