giovanni verrazzano voyages

Giovanni da Verrazzano

Giovanni da Verrazzano was an Italian explorer who charted the Atlantic coast of North America between the Carolinas and Newfoundland, including New York Harbor in 1524. The Verrazano–Narrows Bridge in New York was named after him.

(1485-1528)

Who Was Giovanni da Verrazzano?

Around 1506 or 1507, Giovanni da Verrazzano began pursuing a maritime career, and in the 1520s, he was sent by King Francis I of France to explore the East Coast of North America for a route to the Pacific. He made landfall near what would be Cape Fear, North Carolina, in early March and headed north to explore. Verrazzano eventually discovered New York Harbor, which now has a bridge spanning it named for the explorer. After returning to Europe, Verrazzano made two more voyages to the Americas. On the second, in 1528, he was killed and eaten by the natives of one of the Lower Antilles, probably on Guadeloupe.

Early Years

Giovanni da Verrazzano was born around 1485 near Val di Greve, Italy. Verrazzano was introduced to adventure and exploration at an early age. He first headed to Egypt and Syria, places that were considered mysterious and nearly impossible to reach at the time. Sometime between 1507 and 1508, Verrazzano went to France, where he met with King Francis I. He also came in contact with members of the French navy, and began to get a feel for the navy’s missions and building rapport with the sailors and commanders.

Voyages and Route

Verrazzano and Francis I met between 1522 and 1523, and Verrazzano convinced the king that he would be the right man to undertake exploratory voyages to the West on behalf of France; Francis I signed on. Verrazzano prepared four ships, loaded with ammunition, cannons, lifeboats, and scientific equipment, with provisions to last eight months. The flagship was named Delfina , in honor of the King’s firstborn daughter, and it set sail with the Normanda , Santa Maria and Vittoria . The Santa Maria and Vittoria were lost in a storm at sea, while the Delfina and the Normanda found their way into battle with Spanish ships. In the end, only the Delfina was seaworthy, and it headed to the New World during the night of January 17, 1524. Like many explorers of the day, Verrazzano was ultimately seeking a passage to the Pacific Ocean and Asia, and he thought that by sailing along the northern coastline of the New World he would find a passageway to the West Coast of North America.

After 50 days at sea, the men aboard the Delfina sighted land — generally thought to be near what would become Cape Fear, North Carolina. Verrazzano first steered his ship south, but upon reaching the northern tip of Florida, he turned and headed north, never losing sight of the coastline. On April 17, 1524, the Delfina entered the Bay of New York. He landed on the southern tip of Manhattan, where he stayed until a storm a pushed him toward Martha’s Vineyard. He finally came to rest at what is known today as Newport, Rhode Island. Verrazzano and his men interacted with the local population there for two weeks, before returning to France in July 1524.

Accomplishments

Verrazzano added greatly to the knowledge base of mapmakers in terms of the geography of the East Coast of North America. In honor of the famed explorer, the bridge spanning the Narrows between Brooklyn and Staten Island now bears his name. The Jamestown Verrazzano Bridge in Rhode Island is also named in honor of the explorer.

In March 1528, Verrazzano left France on his final voyage, yet again seeking the passage to India (after not having found it via a South American voyage the year before). The expedition, which included Verrazzano’s brother, Girolamo, sailed along the coast of Florida before drifting into the Caribbean Sea. This turned out to be the last mistake the explorer would ever make.

While sailing south of Jamaica, the crew spotted a heavily vegetated, seemingly unpopulated island, and Verrazzano dropped anchor to explore it with a handful of crewmen. The group was soon attacked by a large assemblage of cannibalistic natives who killed them and ate them all as Girolamo and the rest of the crew watched from the main ship, unable to help.

QUICK FACTS

• Birth Year: 1485
• Birth City: Val di Greve
• Birth Country: Italy
• Gender: Male
• Best Known For: Giovanni da Verrazzano was an Italian explorer who charted the Atlantic coast of North America between the Carolinas and Newfoundland, including New York Harbor in 1524. The Verrazano–Narrows Bridge in New York was named after him.
• Nacionalities
• Death Year: 1528
• Death City: Lesser Antilles

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In This Article Expand or collapse the "in this article" section Giovanni da Verrazzano, Explorer

Introduction, reference works.

• Documentary Evidence
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• Florentine Background and French Involvement
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• Relationship with Indigenous Peoples: Facts
• Relationship with Indigenous Peoples: Cultures
• Verrazzano’s Voyages Before and After 1524

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Giovanni da Verrazzano, Explorer by Luca Codignola LAST REVIEWED: 12 January 2023 LAST MODIFIED: 12 January 2023 DOI: 10.1093/obo/9780199730414-0375

Giovanni da Verrazzano was a navigator of Tuscan origin, said to be born either in 1491 (or less likely in 1485), who, between 7 March 1524 (sighting of Cape Fear, North Carolina) and early July 1524 (arrival in Dieppe), led his ship Dauphine in the earliest known European exploration of the Eastern coasts of what are now the United States and Canada, from the Carolinas in the south to Nova Scotia and possibly Newfoundland in the North. In his short, dry, and apparently reliable report to the king of France Francis I (dated from Dieppe on 8 July 1524), he described the local flora and fauna, together with the Indigenous peoples he met. The main purpose of his 1524 crossing and of the expeditions that preceded and followed it was the finding of a Northwest Passage to Cathay (East Indies). The French Crown granted its patronage to the 1524 expedition, which was financially backed by investors in Florence and France (Rouen, Lyons), most of them of Tuscan origin. However, since the continental passage was not found and the surveyed coastline did not reveal any economic potential that could be compared to the Spanish riches in the south, Verrazzano’s 1524 expedition did not yield any follow-up and the eastern coastline north of Florida did not attract any new attempt at discovery until the early 17th century. Most of Verrazzano’s life is still shrouded in mystery. The date and place of his birth are unknown, nothing is known of his early years, and his possible participation in a 1508 voyage to the Gulf of St. Lawrence is not documented. He was probably active in Mediterranean trade, but the time of his joining the Florentine circles of relatives and friends in France before 1521 is again mostly conjectural. Lastly, there exists no other documentation of his 1524 crossing except his own report. After the 1524 expedition he was involved in an expedition to Brazil (1526–1527) and in another to Florida and the Lesser Antilles (1528), where he is said to have met with violent death.

The two most important reference works on Verrazzano are those of the American historian and librarian Lawrence Counselman Wroth ( Wroth 1970 ), and Mollat du Jourdin and Habert 1982 , written by Michel Mollat du Jourdin and Jacques Habert, the former a specialist in French maritime history, the latter a nonprofessional historian. Habert had graduated at Columbia University with a Master’s thesis on Verrazzano, which he then condensed in a book lacking most scholarly apparatus ( Habert 1964 ) and in a more popular biographical study ( Habert 1993 ). Overall summaries of Verrazzano’s life were compiled in Morley 1966 , Thrower 1999 , and Guidi Bruscoli 2013 , as well as in Miroglio 1991 , Picquet 1999 , and Surdich 2020 , the last three items emphasizing developments in Italian historiography since the 19th century. Given the paucity of original documentation, these reference works are very similar, and in principle, their dates of publication reflect the appearance of new evidence. This is all the more true of Rombai 1993 .

Guidi Bruscoli, Francesco. “Giovanni da Verrazzano.” In Amerigo Vespucci e i mercanti viaggiatori fiorentini del Cinquecento . Edited by Margherita Azzari and Leonardo Rombai, 125–130. Florence: Firenze University Press, 2013.

A good biographical entry, still considering Verrazzano’s traditional 1485 date of birth as the most plausible.

Habert, Jacques. La vie et les voyages de Jean de Verrazane . Ottawa, ON: Le Circle du Livre de France, 1964.

The earliest detailed biography of Verrazzano, unfortunately published without its scholarly apparatus. Uses Archives départementales de la Seine Maritime and Bibliothèque Nationale. Originally published in 1949.

Habert, Jacques. Verrazane: Quand New York s’appelait Angoulême . Paris: Éditions Perrin, 1993.

A popular biographical study based on the authors’ previous research.

Miroglio, Andrea. “Giovanni da Verrazzano.” In Nuovo Mondo: Gli italiani 1492–1565 . Edited by Paolo Collo and Pier Luigi Crovetto, 385–408. Turin, Italy: Giulio Einaudi, 1991.

A very good summary of Verrazzano’s travels before and after 1524, emphasizing the role of Italian 19th-century historiography.

Mollat du Jourdin, Michel, and Jacques Habert. Giovanni et Girolamo Verrazano navigateurs de François Ier: Dossiers de voyages . Paris: Imprimerie Nationale, 1982.

An indispensable work on the Verrazzano brothers, including transcribed documents and new evidence surfaced after Wroth 1970 which suggest that the cosmographic portion of the Verrazzano’s 1524 report could have been the work of another author. In the discussion of the influence of the 1529 Verrazzano planisphere, the map of Jacques Le Moyne de Morgues ( c. 1565) is missing.

Morley, William Felix Edmund. “Verrazzano, Giovanni da.” In Dictionary of Canadian Biography : 1: 1000 to 1700 . Edited by George W. Brown, Marcel Trudel, and André Vachon, 657–660. Toronto, Buffalo, London: University of Toronto Press, 1966.

Initial information on the Verrazzano family, later revised in Boglione 1999 .

Picquet, Théa. “Voyages d’un Florentin: Giovanni da Verrazzano (1485–1528).” Cahiers d’études romaines 3 (1999): 41–80; also Rinascimento , ser. 2, 39 (1999): 431–466.

DOI: 10.4000/etudesromanes.3378

A lengthy but not particularly innovative article, with Miroglio 1991 as its point of reference.

Rombai, Leonardo, ed. Il Mondo di Vespucci e Verrazzano: Geografia e viaggi: Dalla Terrasanta all’America . Florence: Leo S. Olschki, 1993.

A celebrative collection that contains some chapters on Giovanni da Verrazzano, notably by Alessandro Boglione, Leandro Perini, and Raffaella Signorini, none of which are particularly innovative.

Surdich, Francesco. “Verrazzano, Giovanni.” In Dizionario Biografico degli Italiani . Edited by Alberto Maria Ghisalberti, et al. 99. Rome: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana, 2020.

This more recent among biographical entries leans toward 1491 as Verrazzano’s date of birth, and includes a vast bibliography especially good on 19th-century Italian historiography.

Thrower, Norman Joseph William. “Verrazzano, Giovanni (1485?-1528).” In American National Biography . 22. Edited by John A. Garraty and Mark C. Carnes, 332–333. New York, Oxford: Oxford University Press, [1994] 1999.

A short biographical entry emphasizing the many doubtful occurrences that still surround Verrazzano’s life and navigational exploits.

Wroth, Lawrence Counselman. The Voyages of Giovanni da Verrazzano, 1524–1528 . New Haven, CT, London: Published for the Pierpont Morgan Library by Yale University Press, 1970.

The authoritative and unsurpassed study of Verrazzano’s voyages, including the text of his 1524 report, never questioned except in part in Hatzoupolos and Virr 1992 (cited in Documentary Evidence ).

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Giovanni da Verrazzano

Life and First American Expedition

Born in the south of Florence in Italy to Piero Andrea di Bernardo da Verrazzano and Fiametta Capelli, Giovanni da Verrazzano’s exact date of birth is unknown, and there have been alternative birthplaces proposed. Because he served the king of France, French scholars have purported him to be of French birth, but that theory has been mostly discredited. He always referred to himself as a native of Florence and was called a Florentine by contemporaries.

While Verrazzano wrote lengthy and detailed reports about his voyages and explorations of the Americas, we know very little about the details of his personal life. What can be verified is that he came to live in France at the Port of Dieppe sometime after 1506. It was there that he became a seafarer and a navigator, and learned his first lessons in sailing a ship. Sometime around 1508, he left France on his first trip to the Americas on the ship La Pensee, owned by Jean Ango, and captained by Thomas Aubert. Upon his arrival he took a small fishing craft from the La Pensee and made his first solo explorations of areas of Newfoundland and the St. Lawrence river, now in Canada. He returned to France and added to his experience as a seaman by traveling to the Mediterranean and back.

The Second American Journey

After agreeing to head the expedition for the French king, Verrazzano left with four ships, intending to cross the Atlantic straight west and arrive at the Grand Banks area of Newfoundland. After two of the ships were lost to storms and perilous seas, the remaining two ships returned, barely seaworthy and in need of repair as a result of the adventure to Brittany. By the end of 1523 the ships had undergone repair and refurbishment and were ready to try the voyage a second time. Perhaps in an attempt to avoid the stormy seas of the first trip, the ships headed south through a calmer but more dangerous ocean – dangerous because the area was under the control of Portuguese and Spanish forces.

Verrazzano’s ship, called La Dauphine, was the only one to make it out of the hazardous seas and across the Atlantic, arriving near Cape Fear in March of 1524. Further travels brought the ship to the present Pamlico Sound area of North Carolina, where Verrazzano wrote that he firmly believed the Pamlico Sound was the entrance to a passage to the Pacific, and from there, a route to China could easily be found. This erroneous information caused incorrect and inaccurate maps of the coastline to be made, and it would remain incorrectly charted for future explorers for years to come.

Heading north up the coast of the Carolinas, Verrazzano and his men encountered several coastal tribes of Native Americans, but he failed to take note of the Chesapeake Bay or Delaware River entrances into the continent, both of which might have been surmised to be routes west. Upon arriving at New York Bay, he wrote that he and his men had found a large lake, when it was actually the Hudson River’s mouth. Proceeding parallel to Long Island, the expedition arrived at Narragansett Bay and there it met the Wampanoag tribe’s delegation. The site of this meeting was named Norman Villa by Verrazzano to honor a nobleman in France, whose name was used on maps of the area drawn up in 1527. Similarly, an area west of this in present-day Delaware or New Jersey was called Longa Villa by Verrazzano, again to honor a French nobleman.

After a stay of about two weeks at this location, Verrazzano took his crew and La Dauphine north. They explored the coastal stretches of what is now Maine, Nova Scotia, and Newfoundland, and narratives of these adventures were written by the captain for posterity. Information gained on this leg of the journey was also used to make maps of the American coastline. Maps named the region he had explored Nova Gallia, which means New France, but according to his diaries, Verrazzano originally wanted it to be called Francesca. The successful second American trip ended with a return to France in July of 1524.

Last Voyages and Death

After this voyage, Verrazzano remained in his French home, inactive for a few years but writing his memoirs. When two noble financiers approached him with a plan to return to America to look for the so far unfound route to the Orient, he assented at once. This time he was in charge of a small fleet of four ships and the expedition sailed from the Port of Dieppe in early 1527. After a storm in the area of the Cape Verde islands separated one ship from the group, he arrived at the Brazilian coast with two ships, with the third trailing behind. Verrazzano was able to fill the holds of the ships with the brazilwood which they harvested, and left enough for the third ship as well. He returned from Brazil with the precious cargo and arrived in Dieppe in the fall, with the third brazilwood-laden ship following close behind.

While the explorer had been successful in returning with a valuable cargo, he had not been able to find the much sought after passage to the Pacific and points beyond, and a subsequent voyage to the new world was soon planned and executed. In the early months of 1528, Verrazzano left Dieppe for the last time in his sea-going career. He was able to make valuable contributions to knowledge of the area while exploring present day Florida, the Bahamas, and the Lesser Antilles. At a stop believed by historians to be near the island of Guadeloupe, Verrazzano was anchored at sea with his ships when he decided to take a small boat and row to shore by himself. There he fell victim to native cannibals and died, presumably providing dinner in the process. The year was 1528.

Some controversy among historians surrounded the veracity of Verrazzano’s writings for many years, even into in the 20th century. These letters and reports were finally accepted as true, and his place in the history of the exploration of America was firmly established. The Verrazzano-Narrows Bridge was named after the explorer, as was a ferryboat serving the New York to Staten Island run. Bridges in the Narragansett Bay area bear his name, as do innumerable community memorials and organizations. He is a source of pride to the Italian-American community, and an important part of the early history of the exploration of what would come to be known as America.

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The Voyages of Giovanni da Verrazzano, 1524-1528

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Charles E. Nowell; The Voyages of Giovanni da Verrazzano, 1524-1528. Hispanic American Historical Review 1 August 1971; 51 (3): 537–538. doi: https://doi.org/10.1215/00182168-51.3.537

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Giovanni da Verrazzano was an explorer about whom little is known and much is conjectural. Almost the only certainty is that in 1524, in the caravel Dauphine , he discovered for France the coast from near Cape Fear to Newfoundland. He made other voyages, but from such guidelines as exist it is doubtful that on these he went to places not previously discovered.

Verrazzano called himself a Florentine; Wroth argues convincingly that he was born at Lyons, where numerous Florentines lived who considered themselves citizens of the mother city. His birth year is unknown, though he was evidently in his forties at the time of his death. The author refutes the old assertion that the voyager died on a Spanish gallows as a pirate, showing that from the best evidence he was killed and presumably eaten by Caribbean savages in 1528.

Wroth suggests, without seeking to prove, that Verrazzano visited the Newfoundland area with the Thomas Aubert expedition as early as 1508. If so it would explain his treatment of this vicinity as familiar in his report of the 1524 discoveries.

With so much concerning him uncertain, Verrazzano’s fame depends on the Dauphine expedition of 1524. This went in search of a passage to Cathay, financed by wealthy Florentines in Lyons and a Lombard in Paris, with at least the official blessing of King Francis I. For the resulting discoveries, our evidences are the Cèllere Codex, written or dictated by the commander himself and now in the Pierpont Morgan Library, and a number of maps, one of them the work of the explorer’s brother, Gerolamo. Together, these permit a satisfactory reconstruction of the expedition, whose discoveries included New York harbor.

Is this enough to place Verrazzano among the great explorers? In the Columbus-Vespucci-Magellan sense it is not, as, with the emphasis then being placed upon a waterway through America, it was probably only a question of who would be first to explore this stretch of North American coast. On the other hand, evidence shows Verrazzano to have been an exceptionally able commander who understood the nature of his discoveries. Even before sailing, he realized that, after his trans-Atlantic landfall, Cathay would be far distant.

Wroth’s inclusion of every scrap of evidence regarding Verrazzano makes this appear to be the definitive work on the explorer. Statements of fact to which exception can be taken are peripheral to the main theme. Sixteenth-century maps are abundantly reproduced; I hope it is no carping criticism to say that at least one modern map would have helped.

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3 Giovanni da Verrazzano Maps an Ocean of His Imagination, 1524

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This chapter focuses on Giovanni da Verrazzano's map of an ocean of his imagination in 1524. Since Christopher Columbus began his voyages in 1492, exploration and land claiming spread through the Western Hemisphere. In 1521, Spain began a 300-year rule of Mexico, and Ferdinand Magellan was making the first circumnavigation of the world, claiming whatever he encountered. Magellan died during a disastrous offensive with natives in the Philippines, and Juan Sebastian del Cano assumed command of the voyage. The account of this voyage, published in 1523, stimulated a great interest in more exploration for routes to Asia. In 1523, Giovanni da Verrazzano was commissioned to explore the east coast of North America from Florida to Newfoundland. In January 1524, Verrazzano sailed southward from France to the Portuguese-owned Madeira Islands. He showed that there was no water passage to the Pacific Ocean, but proved that North America was a vast continent. Verrazzano also produced the data needed for the first rudimentary mapping of the entire east coast, from the Carolinas to Newfoundland.

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Uploaded by [email protected] on March 23, 2009

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Theatres in Moscow

Cultural life of Moscow city is various and rich! Operas, ballets, symphonic concerts... Russian composers have created some of the most beautiful classical music. Russian classical music is very popular in Moscow. It is performed in many beautiful historical venues. Do not forget to include a visit to a concert hall in your itinerary when you are planning your stay in Moscow! And do it in advance.

There are almost no restrictions on dress code in Russian theatres. Visitors may wear jeans and sports shoes, they may have a backpack with them. Only shorts are not allowed.

A typical feature of Russian theatre – visitors are bringing a lot of flowers which they present to their favorite performers after the show.

Here are some practical advices where to go and how to buy tickets.

The Bolshoi Theatre

The Bolshoi Theatre is the oldest, the most famous and popular opera and ballet theatre in Russia. The word “Bolshoi” means “big” in Russian. You can buy a ticket online in advance, 2-3 months before the date of performance on the official website . Prices for famous ballets are high: 6-8 thousand rubles for a seat in stalls. Tickets to operas are cheaper: you can get a good seat for 4-5 thousand rubles. Tickets are cheaper for daytime performances and performances on the New Stage. The New Stage is situated in the light-green building to the left of the Bolshoi's main building. The quality of operas and ballets shown on the New Stage is excellent too. However, you should pay attention that many seats of the Bolshoi’s Old and New Stages have limited visibility . If you want to see the Bolshoi’s Old Stage but all tickets are sold out, you can order a tour of the theatre. You can book such a tour on the official website.

If you want, following Russian tradition, to give flowers to the performers at the end of the show, in the Bolshoi flowers should be presented via special staff who collects these flowers in advance.

In August the Bolshoi is closed.

The Stanislavsky and Nemirovich-Danchenko Music Theatre

This theatre is noteworthy. On one hand, it offers brilliant classical opera and ballet performances. On the other hand, it is an experimental venue for modern artists. You can check the program and buy tickets online here http://stanmus.com/ . If you are opera lover, get a ticket to see superstar Hibla Gerzmava . The theatre has a very beautiful historic building and a stage with a good view from every seat. Tickets are twice cheaper than in the Bolshoi.

The Novaya Opera

“Novaya” means “New” in Russian. This opera house was founded in 1991 by a famous conductor Eugene Kolobov. Its repertoire has several directions: Russian and Western classics, original shows and divertissements, and operas of the 20th and 21st centuries. It is very popular with Muscovites for excellent quality of performances, a comfortable hall, a beautiful Art Nouveau building and a historic park Hermitage, which is situated right next to it. You can buy tickets online here http://www.novayaopera.ru/en .

Galina Vishnevskaya Opera Center

The Opera Center has become one of the best theatrical venues in Moscow. It was founded in 2002 by great diva Galina Vishnevskaya. Nowadays its artistic director is Olga Rostropovich, daughter of Galina Vishnevskaya and her husband Mstislav Rostropovich, great cellist and conductor. Not only best young opera singers perform here, but also world music stars do; chamber and symphonic concerts, theatrical productions and musical festivals take place here. You can see what is on the program here http://opera-centre.ru/theatre . Unfortunately “booking tickets online” is available in Russian only. If you need help, you can contact us at and we can book a ticket for you. 

Tchaikovsky Concert Hall and The Great Hall of Moscow Conservatory

These are two major concert halls for symphonic music in Moscow. Both feature excellent acoustics, impressive interior, various repertoire and best performers. You can check the program here http://meloman.ru/calendar/ . You need just to switch to English. Booking tickets online is available only for owners of Russian, Ukrainian and Belorussian phone numbers. If you need help, you can contact us and we can book a ticket for you. 

Moscow International Performing Arts Center (MIPAC)

This modern and elegant concert hall houses performances of national and foreign symphony orchestras, chamber ensembles, solo instrumentalists, opera singers, ballet dancers, theatre companies, jazz bands, variety and traditional ensembles. Actually, it has three concert halls placed on three different levels and having separate entrances. The President of MIPAC is People’s Artist of the USSR Vladimir Spivakov, conductor of “Virtuosy Moskvy” orchestra. You can see pictures of the concert halls here http://www.mmdm.ru/en/content/halls . The program is impressive in its variety but is not translated into English. You can contact us at and we can find a performance for you.

For the first time Rosatom Fuel Division supplied fresh nuclear fuel to the world’s only floating nuclear cogeneration plant in the Arctic

The fuel was supplied to the northernmost town of Russia along the Northern Sea Route.

The first in the history of the power plant refueling, that is, the replacement of spent nuclear fuel with fresh one, is planned to begin before 2024. The manufacturer of nuclear fuel for all Russian nuclear icebreakers, as well as the Akademik Lomonosov FNPP, is Machinery Manufacturing Plant, Joint-Stock Company (MSZ JSC), a company of Rosatom Fuel Company TVEL that is based in Elektrostal, Moscow Region.

The FNPP includes two KLT-40S reactors of the icebreaking type. Unlike convenient ground-based large reactors (that require partial replacement of fuel rods once every 12-18 months), in the case of these reactors, the refueling takes place once every few years and includes unloading of the entire reactor core and loading of fresh fuel into the reactor.

The cores of KLT-40 reactors of the Akademik Lomonosov floating power unit have a number of advantages compared to the reference ones: a cassette core was used for the first time in the history of the unit, which made it possible to increase the fuel energy resource to 3-3.5 years between refuelings, and also reduce the fuel component of the electricity cost by one and a half times. The FNPP operating experience formed the basis for the designs of reactors for nuclear icebreakers of the newest series 22220. Three such icebreakers have been launched by now.

For the first time the power units of the Akademik Lomonosov floating nuclear power plant were connected to the grid in December 2019, and put into commercial operation in May 2020. The supply of nuclear fuel from Elektrostal to Pevek and its loading into the second reactor is planned for 2024. The total power of the Akademik Lomonosov FNPP, supplied to the coastal grid of Pevek without thermal energy consumption on shore, is about 76 MW, being about 44 MW in the maximum thermal power supply mode. The FNPP generated 194 million kWh according to the results of 2023. The population of Pevek is just a little more than 4 thousand, while the FNPP has a potential for supplying electricity to a city with a population of up to 100 thousand people. After the FNPP commissioning two goals were achieved. These include first of all the replacement of the retiring capacities of the Bilibino NPP, which has been operating since 1974, as well as the Chaunskaya TPP, which has already been operating for more than 70 years. Secondly, energy is supplied to the main mining companies in western Chukotka in the Chaun-Bilibino energy hub a large ore and metal cluster, including gold mining companies and projects related to the development of the Baimsk ore zone. In September 2023, a 110 kilovolt power transmission line with a length of 490 kilometers was put into operation, connecting the towns of Pevek and Bilibino. The line increased the reliability of energy supply from the FNPP to both Bilibino consumers and mining companies, the largest of which is the Baimsky GOK. The comprehensive development of the Russian Arctic is a national strategic priority. To increase the NSR traffic is of paramount importance for accomplishment of the tasks set in the field of cargo shipping. This logistics corridor is being developed due regular freight voyages, construction of new nuclear-powered icebreakers and modernization of the relevant infrastructure. Rosatom companies are actively involved in this work. Rosatom Fuel Company TVEL (Rosatom Fuel Division) includes companies fabricating nuclear fuel, converting and enriching uranium, manufacturing gas centrifuges, conducting researches and producing designs. As the only nuclear fuel supplier to Russian NPPs, TVEL supplies fuel for a total of 75 power reactors in 15 countries, for research reactors in nine countries, as well as for propulsion reactors of the Russian nuclear fleet. Every sixth power reactor in the world runs on TVEL fuel. Rosatom Fuel Division is the world’s largest producer of enriched uranium and the leader on the global stable isotope market. The Fuel Division is actively developing new businesses in chemistry, metallurgy, energy storage technologies, 3D printing, digital products, and decommissioning of nuclear facilities. TVEL also includes Rosatom integrators for additive technologies and electricity storage systems. Rosenergoatom, Joint-Stock Company is part of Rosatom Electric Power Division and one of the largest companies in the industry acting as an operator of nuclear power plants. It includes, as its branches, 11 operating NPPs, including the FNPP, the Scientific and Technical Center for Emergency Operations at NPPs, Design and Engineering as well as Technological companies. In total, 37 power units with a total installed capacity of over 29.5 GW are in operation at 11 nuclear power plants in Russia. Machinery Manufacturing Plant, Joint-Stock Company (MSZ JSC, Elektrostal) is one of the world’s largest manufacturers of fuel for nuclear power plants. The company produces fuel assemblies for VVER-440, VVER-1000, RBMK-1000, BN-600,800, VK-50, EGP-6; powders and fuel pellets intended for supply to foreign customers. It also produces nuclear fuel for research reactors. The plant belongs to the TVEL Fuel Company of Rosatom.

Rosatom obtained a license for the first land-based SMR in Russia

On April 21, Rosenergoatom obtained a license issued by Rostekhnadzor to construct the Yakutsk land-based SMR in the Ust-Yansky District of the Republic of Sakha (Yakutia).

ROSATOM and FEDC agree to cooperate in the construction of Russia's first onshore SNPP

ROSATOM and FEDC have signed a cooperation agreement to build Russia's first onshore SNPP in Yakutia.

Rosatom develops nuclear fuel for modernized floating power units

Rosatom has completed the development of nuclear fuel for the RITM-200S small modular reactor designed for the upgraded floating power units.