Page 541 - Economia Azul - versão: inglês

that route to guide, and eventually rescue, the Panama Canal Zone for nine years. ship with nuclear propulsion, the Russian up good prospects for the nuclear produc-
gas tankers, resulting in time savings of up Russia built and installed an FNPP on top Sevmorput, with 61.9 kt (0.003% of the tion of this input.
to 20 days and thousands of kilometers of a barge in 2019, Akademic Lomonosov, 2 Gt). The possibility of using hydrogen or 4.5 Future prospects for other
over other routes. There are plans to ex- which sailed to its permanent location in ammonia as marine fuels could make hy- applications
pand the use of this route to include the the Chukotka region and began operations drogen production by nuclear plants an
transport of ores. in December of that year. Through cogen- additional option for maritime transport. There are other applications of nuclear
As mentioned, there are still few exam- eration, it supplies electricity and desalina- As the world’s merchant fleet has the ca- technologies currently being contemplated,
ples of civil use of nuclear propulsion at tion. A second generation of these FNPPs, pacity to consume 410 GWt, which rep- with reasonable potential for future use.
sea. However, the expansion of this use, called Optimized Floating Power Units – resents about a third of the power gener- Examples of these applications are the
stimulated by climatic issues, would lead to OFPU, is being developed. ated by nuclear plants, there is ample room supply of energy by subsea reactors, the
a growth of the naval industry in several A Danish project proposes to install, in for growth in the direct or indirect use of use of nuclear techniques for food pres-
countries. Thus would not be necessari- floating barges, modern compact molten nuclear energy at sea. ervation in the fishing industry and the
ly restricted to those countries that make salt reactors, whose nuclear fuel is mixed As a result, since 2009, several stud- use of SMR for power generation, desali-
military use of this technology, and would with fluoride salts, in a liquid state above ies have been carried out on nuclear pro- nation, heating and cooling in coastal re-
have a reasonable economic impact, given 500ºC and at a pressure close to atmo- pulsion for merchant ships in China, the gions, islands and ocean bases.
the large resources involved in the con- spheric in order to flow and also act as a United Kingdom, the United States and Microreactors or SMR submerged at
struction of vessels. coolant. Such reactors are safer because, Canada. These studies deal with eco- different depths have been studied as pos-
For this expansion to take place, it will among other reasons, the liquid solidifies nomic feasibility, mitigation of climatic sible sources of electrical energy for coastal
be necessary to build nuclear-powered when exposed to air, and superheated effects, use of SMR and regulatory as- regions and oil and gas exploration (COTTA
ships whose operation is economically steam does not leak. pects. Some were supported by the IMO et al., 2020). The first designed submarine
rewarding, and which incorporate new There are also two projects in China, and and the IAEA. More recently, since 2020, nuclear power plant that is recorded in the
technologies in order to improve their per- projects in South Korea and Canada. These research and development activities have literature was proposed by Rockwell Interna-
formance and meet naval nuclear safety nuclear plants use low enriched uranium and emerged in the United States, United tional in 1974, with the objective of enabling

requirements that guarantee them accep- can supply 100 MWe of power and 1400 Kingdom, and South Korea of modular the production of offshore oil in the Gulf of
tance by society. GJ/h of thermal power for desalination. molten salt reactors (~100 MWt) for ma- Mexico with the generation of 3MWe. Cur-
rine propulsion, cooled by molten salts rently, Russia’s SHELF reactor is designed for
4.3 Floating nuclear plants 4.4 Future prospects for marine (modular molten salt reactors – MSR), for onboard and submerged use, having been
nuclear propulsion
Nuclear plants embedded in floating operating at ambient pressure and with idealized for oil and natural gas exploration
structures that can be moved to remote In 2018, the International Maritime Orga- low enrichment fuel. in the Arctic region, below the polar ice cap.
regions by sea and/or navigable rivers are nization – IMO proposed, for 2050, a goal Nuclear propulsion can be indicated for The analysis of core-electrical genera-
already being used. With the development of reducing greenhouse gases from maritime large bulk carriers and cruise ships, where tion for oil and gas exploration has more
of SMRs, this would represent a new option transport of 50% compared to 2008. The SMR reactors could even supply energy for recently awakened interest, with the need
for supplying energy to hard-to-reach plac- annual energy expenditure with global mari- onboard activities, tugs for transoceanic to reduce the flaring of gases. There is an
es, which could make use of cogeneration time transport was 8.9 EJ (1 Exajoule = 1018 crossings and fast freighters. In addition, ongoing study in collaboration between
to also enable desalination, hydrogen pro- Joules) in 2017, 82% came from heavy oils the Organization for Economic Coopera- UFRJ and DGDNTM/MB and its partners,
duction, district heating and refrigeration. and the rest from gas and diesel. The world tion and Development - OECD, in its En- and research projects have been proposed
An offshore reactor supplied power (1.5 merchant fleet had a capacity of 2 Gt and ergy Technology Perspectives 2020 study, to assess the feasibility of this alternative
MWe) to the US base in Antarctica for ten carried 8.9 Gt of freight in 2018. projects a sustainable development sce- (COTTA et al., ABCM Engenharia, 2020).
years, until 1972. A floating nuclear power In view of these numbers, it is note- nario in which 12% of maritime transport Recently, Petrobras and its partners have
plant (FNPP) supplied power (10 MWe) to worthy that there is only one merchant will use hydrogen in 2070, which opens developed a new process for separating

538 BLUE ECONOMIY Nuclear Technologies for the Sea 539