St Petersburg: Russian shipbuilding took a bold new step forward yesterday with the keel laying at Baltic Shipyard of the first of three record breaking nuclear-powered icebreakers
“Ships of this project represent a new type of Russian nuclear-powered icebreakers and a new stage in the history of national shipbuilding. By their construction, a cornerstone of the Russian icebreaking fleet is laid and a new page is turned in the development of the Arctic shipping,” Sergey Sedov, the CEO of Russian Maritime Register of Shipping, commented. The Russian Register is classing the trio of ships.
Owing to a new structural solution, ship draught can be modified which makes efficient operation possible both in deep western areas of the Arctic such as the Barents, Pechora and Kara Seas, and in shallower waters such as in the mouth of the Yenisei and the Gulf of Ob. The highest Arctic category Icebreaker9 and 60 MW power will enable the icebreakers to move through ice of up to 2.8 m thickness. The ship’s length is 173.3 m, the breadth is 34 m, design draught is 10.5 m and minimal operating draught is 8.55 m. Pre-designed displacement is 33,540 tons, making the series the largest and the most powerful icebreakers in the world.
