By Firdevs Yuksel

ANKARA

Russian Building Standards Watchdog, Glavgosexpertiza, approved the construction of the world’s first floating nuclear power plant (FNPP) project, the agency announced on its website on Tuesday.

The Akademik Lomonosov FNPP will be built in Russia's northernmost town of Pevek and plans to be put into operation by 2019.

The FNPP is intended for the generation and output of heat and electric power and can also be used for seawater desalination.

The plant is equipped with two reactors capable of producing up to 70 megawatts of electric power and 50 gigacalories of heat in normal operating conditions. This is enough power to support the life of a city with a population of about 100 thousand people, a statement from the company read. 

The Akademik Lomonosov plant will replace the retiring Bilibinskaya Nuclear Power Plant (NPP), which is currently generating up to 80 percent of electric power in the isolated Chaun-Bilibinskaya grid.

The FNPP is designed to operate for about forty years.

Rosenergoatom Concern JSC, a subsidiary of state nuclear corporation Rosatom, will finance the project's construction.