Another blow for Sevmash

The construction of the world?s first floating nuclear power plant at Sevmash shipyard in Severodvinsk will now be moved to Baltiysky shipyard in St. Petersburg. Officially, the contract with Sevmash is cancelled because the shipyard is inundated with military orders from the navy according to Russian nuclear state company, Rosatom.

Several nuclear powered submarines and other naval vessels are in line of construction at the large shipyard on the banks of the White Sea. No other shipyard world-wide has built more nuclear powered submarines than Sevmash, and with the renewed focus on naval power in Russia more will come.

The construction work on the floating nuclear power plant, to be named Akademik Lomonsov, started at Sevmash in April 2007. So far, a third of the plant?s hull and central section is built and this will be moved to the St. Petersburg shipyard. The unanswered question now is the final destination of the plant. Originally it should be located in Severodvinsk and supply electric power to the two naval yards in the city.

The Baltiysky shipyard has long-time experience in nuclear engineering. All of Russia’s Arktika-class nuclear powered icebreakers are built at the Baltiysky yard and the newest icebreaker, the 50-years anniversary, was delivered last year and operates in Arctic waters with Murmansk as its home port. The reactors to be used in the floating nuclear power plant are more or less of the same type (KLT-40) as the reactors onboard Russia’s fleet of nuclear powered icebreakers.

The construction of the floating nuclear power plant has been delayed several times and earlier this year it was reported that the construction would be completed in mid-2011. How the transfer of the construction from Severodvinsk to St. Petersburg will effect this time-frame is unclear.

Rosatom is also planning to construct seven further floating nuclear power plants apparently to be used by Gazprom for offshore oil and gas field development and for operations on the Kola and Yamal peninsulas.

This latest loss is Sevmash?s third big civilian contract to vanish from the yard recently. Sevmash was hoping to get the contract for the Shtokman gas field platforms but, instead, the work will be undertaken at the Vyborg shipyard. In February this year, the Norwegian shipping company Odfjell cancelled its contract with Sevmash over the construction of a series of chemical tankers because of serious delays and cost overruns with the construction of the vessels.