ATOMFLOT says Russia needs nine more icebreakers for the Northern Sea Route by 2025

To ensure annual smooth transits of merchant ships through the Northern Sea Route Russia needs to add by 2025 to its icebreaking fleet assisting shipping year-round on the shipping lane at least nine icebreakers (excluding those under construction), an ATOMFLOT executive said at the 3rd International Conference “The Arctic 2018” in Moscow.

Vyacheslav Ruksha, Director General of FSUE Atomflot told that according to his calculations, to ensure transits of Europe bound ships via the Northern Sea Route the sector will need by 2025 additional four 40MW icebreakers, to escort cargo vessels to the East – five icebreakers, two of them with a capacity of 60 MW to be commissioned into service by 2025 and three 120 MW icebreakers should be available if the Asia bound traffic totals more than 50 million tonnes per year.

The ATOMFLOT head noted that the current nuclear icebreaking fleet will unable to cope with its tasks by 2035.

ATOMFLOT expects the delivery of three LK-60 icebreakers from the Baltiyskiy Zavod Shipyard. The first vessel is scheduled for delivery in May 2019, the second one in November 2020, and the third — in November 2021.