The United Industrial Corporation, a Russian manufacturer, said
this week that the world’s first floating nuclear power plant
will go into operation on Russia’s eastern coast by the end of
2012. The manufacturer, known also as O.P.K., told Green Inc.
that the first model would be used to help power Viluchinsk, a
city on the Kamchatka peninsula that serves as an atomic
submarine base. O.P.K. said similar models could power other
cities in northern Russia in the future. But according to
nuclear experts, mining companies are likely to use Russian-
built floating reactors to power operations to extract oil and
gas and valuable minerals from the Arctic and other remote
regions. O.P.K. is building the plant in the shape of a ship 144
meters (472 feet) in length and 30 meters (98 feet) wide to
accommodate two 35-megawatt reactors. Construction of the plant,
called KLT-40C, began in February this year. Concern Energoatom,
a nuclear power plant operator, signed a contract this month to
buy the first model, worth 226.8