Last week Russia made history by flipping the power switch on the “Akademik Lomonosov,” a cutting-edge nuclear power plant afloat in the Arctic Ocean. While the project has been highly criticized by some detractors, with some even referring to the Akademik Lomonosov program as “ Chernobyl on ice ,” the plant’s first week has been successfully uneventful, with the first electricity produced by the plant being used to light a Christmas tree in a symbolic gesture. The floating plant will serve the tiny arctic city of Pevek in the northeastern Chukotka Autonomous Okrug region of Russia, which has a population of under 5,000 inhabitants and will enjoy heating from Akademik Lomonosov within the next year, no small gift in a town where “the average high temperature there is -11 Fahrenheit in January and February,” according to Forbes (emphasis added). The Akademik Lomonosov plant was launched with the intention of […]