Russia's 'floating Chernobyl' nuclear plant towed out to sea ahead of 2019 operational launch

A floating nuclear power plant built in Russia has embarked on its first sea voyage so its reactors can be loaded with fuel.

The floating plant, the Akademik Lomonosov, was towed yesterday out of the St Petersburg shipyard where it was constructed.

It is to be pulled through the Baltic Sea and around the northern tip of Norway to Murmansk in northwest Russia, where the nuclear reactors will be fuelled.

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.

It is expected to be the first among a number of such stations built by Russia.

The project has been widely criticised by environmentalists, with Greenpeace dubbing it a "floating Chernobyl".