New nuclear-powered icebreakers under construction for FSUE Atomflot (a company of Rosatom) at Baltiysky Zavod shipyard in Saint-Petersburg and at Zvezda shipyard in the Far East, are at different levels of completion: The Sibir is 88% ready while the Rossiya is at the lowest phase of hull construction, IAA PortNews correspondent cites Konstantin Knyazevsky, Deputy General Director, Fleet Construction, Atomflot, as saying at the Sixth International Scientific Conference «The Arctic: Past and Present» held on April 14-15, 2021 in Saint-Petersburg.
Baltiysky Zavod shipyard is currently building four serial icebreakers.
“The Sibir’s percentage of completion is about 88% with tests and system setup having been held. The Ural’s percentage of completion is about 68% while the Yakutia and Chukotka are still on the stocks with hull works underway”, said Konstantin Knyazevsky.
Besides, Atomflot is supervising the construction of turbo-electric icebreaker of Project 10510, Rossiya. The icebreaker of 120 MW able to break throu 4.3-meter thick ice is under construction at SC Zvezda.
“The ship’s main task is to ensure the commercial speed of 14 knots in 2-meter thick ice. The keel-laying was held last year and today the ship is at the lowest phase of hull construction”, reminded the speaker.
The new icebreaking fleet is needed to meet the state task of boosting cargo traffic on the Northern Sea Route to 80 million tonnes by 2024. As of today Atomflot operates a fleet of five icebreakers able to work on the Northern Sea Route. Besides, it operates four tugs and port icebreaker Ob deployed in Sabetta port. The fleet of Atomflot also includes icebreaking combo LASH carrier / containership Sevmorput which under repair in Saint-Petersburg now.
Konstantin Knyazevsky believes the state task can be fulfilled with year-round navigation and with reduction of NSR passage time to 10-11 days having raised the speed of ships to 14 knots in 2-meter thick ice.
Meanwhile, it is essential to undertake efforts towards the international transit development.
According to Russian President Vladimir Putin, traffic along the Northern Sea Route may become year-round in the near future.
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