Russia and the world's top energy user China may jointly develop six floating nuclear power plants (NPPs), Russia's nuclear export body said on Tuesday, a further joint energy project since the signing of a $400 billion gas supply deal. Rusatom Overseas, the export branch of state nuclear reactor monopoly Rosatom, said it signed a memorandum of understanding with China on the development of floating NPPs from 2019. "Floating NPPs can provide a reliable power supply not only to remote settlements but also to large industrial facilities such as oil platforms," Rusatom Overseas Chief Executive Dzhomart Aliev said in a statement. Hit by European and U.S. sanctions in response to the crisis in Ukraine, Russia is eager to diversify its economy away from the West.