The Russians are all set to tow a large floating nuclear power plant thousands of kilometres across the Northern Sea Route to a final destination in the Far East, hoping to tap into the Arctic's hidden riches.

Environmental groups have dubbed the 144-metre long power station "Chernobyl on Ice", and Russian president Vladimir Putin's ambitious Arctic expansion plans have also raised geopolitical concerns in the United States.

Officially named Akademik Lomonosov and painted in the colours of the Russian flag, the massive nuclear plant is part of Russia's plan to bring electric power to a mineral-rich region.

The 'Akademik Lomonosov, the world'€™s first floating nuclear power plant, leaves St. Petersburg, The plant, owned and operated by Russian state controlled nuclear giant Rosatom, will pass through Estonian, Danish, Swedish and Norwegian waters towards Murmansk. (AAP)

A small Arctic port town of Pevek, some 6500kms away from Moscow will be the station's final destination. It will supply electricity to settlements and companies extracting hydrocarbons and precious stones in the Chukotka region.

The Admiral Lomonosov, which took two decades to build, will be the northernmost operating nuclear plant in the world, and it is key to Putin's plans to develop the region economically.

About two million Russians reside near the Arctic coast in villages and towns similar to Pevek, settlements that are often reachable only by plane or ship, if the weather permits. But they generate as much as 20 percent of country's GDP and are key for Russian plans to tap into the hidden Arctic riches of oil and gas as Siberian reserves diminish.

In theory, floating nuclear power plants could help supply energy to remote areas without long-term commitments - or requiring large investments into conventional power stations on mostly uninhabitable land.

But the concept of a nuclear reactor stationed in the Arctic Sea has drawn criticism from environmentalists. The Lomonosov platform was dubbed "Chernobyl on Ice" or "floating Chernobyl" by Greenpeace even before the public's revived interest in the 1986 catastrophe thanks in large part to the HBO TV series of the same name.

Russian President Vladimir Putin speaks during a plenary session of the International Arctic Forum in St Petersburg, Russia. (EPA/AAP)

A view of Akademik Lomonosov, a floating nuclear power unit, its hull painted at the Atomflot base. The vessel belongs to a new class of energy sources based on Russian nuclear shipbuilding technologies. (Getty)

Rosatom, the state company in charge of Russia's nuclear projects, has been fighting against this nickname, saying such criticism is ill founded.

The idea itself is not new - the US Army used a small nuclear reactor installed on a ship in the Panama Canal for almost a decade in the 1960s. For civil purposes, an American energy company PSE&G commissioned a floating plant to be stationed off the coast of New Jersey, but the project was halted in the 1970s due to public opposition and environmental concerns.

But rather than summoning memories of Chernobyl, some nuclear watchdogs are drawing parallels to the 2011 accident at Fukushima in Japan, with the images of its waterlogged reactors still fresh in the public memory.

The Northern Sea Route is a series of shipping lanes in the Arctic, which have been opened by melting ice sheets. (9News)

The Russian plant's main benefits - mobility and ability to work in remote regions - complicate some crucial security procedures, from routine disposal of the nuclear fuel to rescue operations in the event the platform is hit by a massive wave.

But project engineers say they've learned the lessons of Fukushima.

"This rig can't be torn out of moorings, even with a 9-point tsunami, and we've even considered that if it does go inland, there is a backup system that can keep the reactor cooling for 24 hours without an electricity supply," said Dmitry Alekseenko, deputy director of the Lomonosov plant.

However, experts of Bellona, an NGO monitoring nuclear projects and environmental impacts, say 24 hours might not be enough to prevent a disaster should a tsunami land the rig among towns with two active nuclear reactors aboard.

And then there is the question of cost. Some Russian officials have questioned the floating reactor complex's price tag of an estimated $660 million, saying it would need to enter serial production to be economically viable.

Rosatom has been working to attract clients from Asia, Africa and South America to purchase next iterations of Akademik Lomonosov, but has yet to announce any deals.