COLUMN | Floating nuclear power plants: compelling stuff [An Innocent Australian]

“Nuclear energy is an extraordinary asset whose full potential we need to untap if we are to keep climate change in check.”

– Rafael Mariano Grossi, Director General of the International Atomic Energy Agency

About 20 years ago, a seat-warming senator came out of hiding and declared his thought bubble that Australia’s coast was getting overpopulated and that Australians should consider populating the centre of the country.

I challenged the hapless senator to lead “by example” and set up home in the Simpson Desert. In a column at the time, I did comment hoping that his wife and kids would not accompany him, as it would be a shame to think there was more than one dope in the same family.

Around 92 per cent of Australians live within 50 kilometres of the coast and rivers; that’s what we like to do!

Base load power stations are subsequently within populated coastal areas, and remote areas of Australia get their energy by using fossil-fuelled generators, largely from diesel transported past their door by ships to distribution centres then redelivered locally by trucks or barges.

As efforts to decarbonise global energy systems expand, one of the answers could be to use floating nuclear power plants (FNPPs).

“Singapore is already thinking about the possibility of using nuclear power, and the country is sending people abroad to learn more about the technology.”

Many countries have floating power stations, whether diesel- or gas-powered, in existing ports. The Russians were the first in 2019 to place a 70MW FNPP, the 21,500-tonne Akademik Lomonosov, into a remote town of Vilyuchinsk in Far East Russia, replacing the shut down Bilibino NPP and the aging Chaunsk coal power plant. (I am informed by a colleague that the “must do” breakfast in Vilyuchinsk is toast and caviar.).

The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) International Symposium on FNPPs took place from November 14 to 15, 2023, in Vienna. This meeting highlighted growing interest in installing small modular reactors (SMRs) and micro modular reactors (MMRs) on floating barges or ships to provide clean electricity and heat for remote coastal locations, to decarbonise energy activities, by providing grid scale electricity, unlocking cost reductions through repeat production in shipyards

“Floating NPPs are an interesting option for Indonesia as many power companies already have floating diesel or gas power plants,” said Topan Setiadipura, Co-Chair of the Symposium and Head of the Research Centre for Nuclear Reactor Technology (BRIN) in Indonesia said. “However, acquiring more information and knowledge is essential to understanding whether embarking countries like Indonesia could use FNPPs in the future to replace fossil-fuelled floating power plants.”

During the symposium, discussions focused on current and future designs of FNPPs and their uses. Participants also examined the specific challenges that the movability of FNPPs pose for their licensing, regulation, transportation, and application of safeguards.

Nuclear safety and security were discussed, including the extent to which the current standards and practices can or cannot be applied to FNPPs. The symposium’s concluding session identified the next possible steps to enable the deployment of FNPPs, including the mechanism to improve communication between the nuclear and maritime industry on one hand, and regulators on the other, with focus on application of security and safeguards.

Singapore is already thinking about the possibility of using nuclear power, and the country is sending people abroad to learn more about the technology. One issue for them is their lack of open space, which limits their ability to use utility-scale renewable energy farms. FNPPs will be a positive in the mix of energy strategies given Singapore’s already significant amount of commercial waterfrontage well clear of residential areas.

Recently, US shipping company Crowley Maritime announced a memorandum of understanding with Virginia-based nuclear power company BWX Technologies to develop a ship concept that includes a microreactor for generating zero-carbon emission nuclear power for shoreside applications. This FNPP ship would supply small-scale nuclear energy to shoreside locations, providing 50 MW of power to military bases, backup utility grids, and other situations where traditional electricity sources are not feasible.

The concept 115-metre vessel aims to provide high levels of safety and security with in-house vessel design and nuclear components, fuel, and services. The ship will combine traditional propulsion with a small modular reactor that can be activated and deactivated as needed. It can deliver the power to shore using buoyed power delivery cables and it has shallow-draught hulls for manoeuvrability in military activities or during disaster response to remote areas when harbour access is limited.

The US Department of Homeland Security’s Federal Emergency Management Agency—a department familiar with managing both nuclear risk and disaster recovery—could be a better choice to refresh America’s long-forgotten legacy of projecting power—electrical power—from the sea to shore, but has to wrestle with the US Navy’s secretive grip on nuclear technology.

“Floating nuclear plants provide an attractive option for many remote regional areas.”

Nuclear energy has already been in use for 70 years in naval ships, commercial ships and icebreakers propulsion. Today, there are 162 nuclear-powered vessels floating on top and below the 70 per cent of the planet’s surface, the oceans.

My support for nuclear power on ships has been a matter of record since I bluffed my way on board the nuclear-powered passenger cargo ship Savannah in 1967. The operational capability of that ship was 25 times more than any conventional-powered vessel of the same size.

In marine propulsion applications, absolutely nothing comes close to nuclear. It was then and is the same now, and their ability to put power ashore has always been there. Watch this YouTube video for more details.

FNPPs can be built in a factory, assembled in a shipyard, and transported to a site, all of which may help to speed up construction and keep costs down. Canada, China, Denmark, South Korea, Russia, and the USA are each working on marine SMRs and MMRs designs with some already in advanced development.

FNPPs are not in competition with land based SMR and MMRs. Nonetheless, they provide an attractive option for many remote regional areas such as Vilyuchinsk, the lead example in FNPP installations.

About 5,500 nautical miles south of Vilyuchinsk, in the city of Canberra, the Lilliputian leaders of Australia, despite neighbours Indonesia and Singapore investigating FNPPs, have convinced the locals to ignore nuclear and have blanketed huge tracts of their productive farmland with unreliable solar and wind farms.

Australians should pay attention, get off their fat backsides and dump such hopeless leadership.