Russia is building eight floating nuclear power stations in the Arctic to provide power for oil rigs. Each station costs $400 million US Dollars, can supply heating and electricity for communities of as many as 45,000 people and would need to be services only once every 12 years. Environmentalists and many non-Russians are leery of the project because of the potential for a nuclear disaster and because some of the territory in which the power stations are being built is disputed. Russian scientists claim that the stations are completely safe, and they estimate that they will be able to tap into about 75 billion barrels of oil when the stations are operational.
More on Arctic oil:
- It is believed that as much as one-fourth of the world's undiscovered oil and natural gas lies in the Arctic.
- At the average global oil usage rate of about 86 billion barrels a day, untapped Arctic oil could supply the entire world for three years.
- According to the U.S. Minerals Management Service, the chances of an oil spill during extended exploration and drilling for oil is about one in five. There is no way to clean up spilled oil under the sheets of ice that cover much of the Arctic.