The November 6 to St. Petersburg The new nuclear-powered icebreaker of the Russian fleet, the “Chukotka“, which takes its name from the region of the Russian Far East. It is the fourth vessel of the Project 22220whose objective is to allow navigation in the Arctic even in the coldest months by creating vehicles capable of navigating the so-called Arctic Routea route approximately 5600 km long which is essential for transport people, fuel And goods from northern Europe to Asia, passing through the cold waters of northern Russia. He was also present to witness the ceremony Alexey Likhachevpresident of the Russian nuclear agency Rosatomand President Vladimir Putin also subsequently streamed in, declaring that:
Our entire national economy should be built on our cutting-edge technologies and scientific solutions. I want to emphasize once again that our plans to develop the Arctic and increase cargo traffic on the Northern Sea Route directly depend on strengthening our icebreaker fleet. As you know, we have big ambitions and there is a lot of work to do.
According to Rosatom’s estimates, six or seven boats like Chukotka would be enough to make the Arctic Route entirely navigable all year round. From a technical point of view the Chukotka it’s long 173 meterswide 34 meters and is powered by two RITM-200 nuclear reactorseach with a heat capacity of 175 MW. This is an extremely durable vessel capable of carrying a crew of 50 through thick sheets of ice up to 3 meters and capable of traveling through water at an average speed of 22 knots (equivalent to approximately 41 km/h) with an autonomy of 220 days. To date, however, the ship is not yet fully operational: even if most of the instrumentation has already been installed, the vessel will remain moored in the Baltic shipyard until 2026.
The need to have new boats capable of navigating the Arctic Route is linked to the growing importance of this stretch of sea for the trade Russian. According to the authorities, the amount of cargo transported on this route has increased by approx 10 times in the last decade and, in particular, in the last year, has recorded a 40% increase compared to the previous year, reaching a total of 3 million tons.
