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The main results of the operation of nuclear-powered ships (icebreakers) and their reactor systems are presented. Information about the operating time of the ship reactors and the results of operating individual pieces of equipment are presented. The status, results, and plans for work on extending the overhaul period and service life of ship reactors systems are described.Many years of practice and technical-economic assessments demonstrate that atomic energy can be used very efficiently in ships. The nuclear-powered fleet operating in our country includes eight icebreakers and one transport vessel with nuclear-power systems. Two of the nuclear-powered ships have been decommissioned -the icebreaker Sibir' is temporarily idle and the icebreaker Lenin is technically worn out and is being converted into a museum. Even though the freight volume shipped along the northern sea route has decreased somewhat, nuclear-powered ships are recognized as a necessity for implementing the Russia's national policy in the Arctic.Some nuclear-power systems of operating nuclear-powered icebreakers have now exhausted their initially designated overhaul period and/or service life or are close to doing so. Consequently, since too few new nuclear-powered icebreakers are being built, it is important to extend their operating time, especially since the required technical base exists.There are fifteen OK-900 and KLT-40 reactors operating in the nuclear powered fleet. Their total operating time is 275 reactor-years. The operation of the reactor systems of nuclear-powered icebreakers turned out to be more intense than was anticipated initially in the technical task: 85-90% of the time icebreakers operate in ice under conditions of heightened impacts and vibrational loads. The main equipment has operated intensively, the overhaul period has decreased at an accelerated pace, and the period of continuous operation was often longer than 10 months/year. The main operating results for the nuclear power systems on October 31, 2006 are presented in Table 1.Over the entire operating period of the nuclear-powered ships, there were no cases where a ship had to return to port on an emergency basis because of failure of the nuclear power systems. Although failure of individual pieces of equipment and systems did occur, including small coolant leaks in the first loop into the compartment and leaks from adjoining loops, there was not even one incident where the control of the fission reaction was lost, heat was not removed from the core, or uncontrollable spreading of radionuclides and excess irradiation of people occurred.The facts that highly qualified people operated the system, the ships had technical facilities and parametric diagnostics ability, the developers continually tracked the ships, and the methods and means for performing nondestructive monitoring of equipment and determining the state of equipment components and pipelines to which access is difficult were available made it possible to find malfunctions and failures before they could develo...

It is concluded on the basis of predictions of the growth in demand for fresh water that nuclear desalination has promise. The world status of and experience in nuclear desalination are reviewed. The requirements for using nuclear-powered desalination complexes are examined. Substantiation is given for the desirability and practicability of building such complexes in floating units based on the type of reactors used in ships. The basic design characteristics of a floating complex with a KLT-40S nuclear power system are presented.Fresh water is rapidly becoming a natural resource in short supply. In the 20th century the demand for fresh water increased by a factor of 7 while the population of the planet only tripled. A shortage of fresh water is felt in more than 40 countries, mainly located in arid and drought-afflicted regions and comprising about 60% of the entire dry-land area on Earth. According to UN data, the shortage of fresh water in the world, including for agricultural and industrial needs, is estimated to be 230·10 9 m 3 /yr. By 2025, this figure can increase to (1.3-2)·10 12 m 3 /yr. According to UNESCO predictions, by 2050 7·10 9 people in 60 countries according to pessimistic predictions (2·10 9 people in 48 countries according to optimistic predictions) will experience a shortage of fresh water [1, 2].Although our country possesses enormous stores of fresh water and they are distributed quite uniformly, the watersupply situation in some regions is not an exception from the general trend.A shortage of fresh water can be covered by desalinating salt waters with salt-content exceeding 10 g/liter and brackish (2-10 g/liter) ocean, sea, and underground waters, which comprise 98% of all water on Earth. For this reason, desalination is one of the main variants of the solution to the problem of a shortage of fresh water. When sources of fresh water are far away, on-site desalination of salt water could be cheaper than fresh water which is brought in. Moreover, the state of modern fresh-water sources is often such that it costs more to purify them than to desalinate sea water.Desalination of sea water is on of the most dynamically developing sectors of the world economy. The average yearly rate of growth of the desalination capacity in the world is about 10%. In 1995, the size of the market for desalination of sea water was about 3·10 9 USD and IAEA predicts that by 2015 it will reach 12·10 9 USD. At the present time, the main consumers of desalinated water are concentrated in the Near East (70% of the total volume), while the fraction in Europe is 9.9%, the USA 7.4% (mainly in California and Florida), Africa 6.3%, and other Asian countries 5.8%.Desalination of sea water is a practical and reliable process for obtaining fresh water on commercial scales. Approximately 23·10 6 m 3 /day of desalinated water is now produced by 12500 plants built in various parts of the world. The energy for these plants comes mainly from fossil fuels.Membrane and distillation desalination technologies are most widely used at th...

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