Updated April 29, 2018 13:03:43

Photo: Floating nuclear power plant Akademik Lomonosov docked in St Petersburg. (Greenpeace)

Russia's controversial floating nuclear power plant has headed out for its first sea voyage.

The floating plant, the Akademik Lomonosov, was towed on Saturday (local time) out of the St Petersburg shipyard where it was constructed.

It is to be towed through the Baltic Sea and around the northern tip of Norway to Murmansk, where its reactors are to be loaded with nuclear fuel.

The Lomonosov is to be put into service in 2019 in the Arctic off the coast of Chukotka in the far east, providing power for a port town and for oil rigs.

The project has been widely criticised by environmentalists — Greenpeace has dubbed it a "floating Chernobyl."

"Nuclear reactors bobbing around the Arctic Ocean will pose a shockingly obvious threat to a fragile environment, which is already under enormous pressure from climate change," Greenpeace nuclear expert Jan Haverkamp said in a statement.

"The floating nuclear power plants will typically be put to use near coastlines and shallow water … contrary to claims regarding safety, the flat-bottomed hull and the floating nuclear power plant's lack of self-propulsion makes it particularly vulnerable to tsunamis and cyclones."

Photo: The Lomonosov is to be put into service in 2019. (Greenpeace Russia)

ABC/AP

Topics: world-politics, foreign-affairs, environment, nuclear-issues, russian-federation

First posted April 28, 2018 21:04:55