In May of last year, we posted about the Russians’ first floating nuclear power plant, “Akademik Lomonosov — Floating Chernobyl or Nuclear Titanic?.” At the time, the barge-mounted power plant was essentially completed but needed to be loaded with fuel. Now the reactor, capable of generating 70 Megawatts of power, is being towed to the Arctic, a more than 3,000-mile voyage.

As we posted previously, once operational, the plant will be connected to the electrical grid in the Arctic town of Pevek. It will be the world’s northernmost nuclear reactor, capable of powering a town of 100,000 people. The reactor barge will be anchored at the Kamchatka Peninsula in the Arctic, northwest of Russia. The almost 500-foot long Akademik Lomonosov has a displacement of around 21,500 tons.

Rosatom Corporation, which manufactured the floating reactor, says that the plant was built with “a great margin of safety” that is “invincible for tsunamis and natural disaster.” Critics disagree. Jan Haverkamp, a nuclear expert for Greenpeace Central and Eastern Europe, called it a “shockingly obvious threat to a fragile environment.”

The Akademik Lomonosov project is a decade behind schedule and significantly over budget. If successful, however, Rosatom would like to export floating nuclear plants to nations in Southeast Asia, Latin America, and Africa. The Russian government is reported to want to build another six floating reactors as well.

For better or worse, the Arctic is no stranger to nuclear power. Both the US and Russians operate nuclear-powered vessels in the region. The World Nuclear Association reports that over 140 ships are powered by more than 180 small nuclear reactors and more than 12,000 reactor years of marine operation has been accumulated.

Thanks to Dexter Donham for contributing to this post.