Construction will begin this year of the world's first floating nuclear heat and power station at Russia's Sevmashpredpriyatiye dock in Severodvinsk this year. The plant should be generating by 2006. Currently 70% of equipment at the heat and power stations owned by Arkhenergo, which supplies the dockyard with energy, is worn out. The cost of nuclear electricity is 36 kopecks per kWh. However this is disputed by environmentalists opposed to the project. Ivan Blokov, Greenpeace Russia director for companies said, "The Ministry of Atomic Energy set the cost of one kilowatt-hour at 10-12 cents but the real prime cost will be two or three times higher. And they have failed to calculate the cost of security guards, insurance risks, and so forth." According to project leader Grigoriy Vengerovich, the floating station is a barge with a displacement of 20,000 tonnes, on which are installed two turbogenerators and two KLT-40S nuclear reactors. The building of the first station will cost R3bn ($100 million). The designers believe that within the next 10 years, 20 of these stations will be required for the regions of the Arctic and the Far East.
