Rosenergoatom, Sevmash sign contract to build floating NPP

State-owned nuclear power generating monopoly Rosenergoatom and Sevmash shipyard have signed a contract to build the world's first floating nuclear power plant, the Russian nuclear agency said Wednesday.

ST. PETERSBURG, June 14 (RIA Novosti) - State-owned nuclear power generating monopoly Rosenergoatom and Sevmash shipyard have signed a contract to build the world's first floating nuclear power plant, the Russian nuclear agency said Wednesday.

Sergei Kiriyenko, the head of the Federal Agency for Nuclear Power, said at a conference on floating NPPs in the northern city of Severodvinsk that Russia possessed "unique experience ... on using small- and medium-power NPP reactors."

The NPP will mainly provide power supplies for Sevmash, which won a tender in May to build a floating reactor for a low-power thermal and electric power plant that will sell one fifth of its energy to the energy-hungry Asia-Pacific region.

Sergei Obozov of Rosenergoatom said Tuesday the project would cost 9.1 billion rubles ($337 million) and would be commissioned in October 2010.