Russia invests in new icebreakers

If the goal is met, the icebreaker fleet will ship an annual 16 million tons of goods by 2015, Rosatom reports with reference to a statement made to Interfax. Atomflot leader Sergey Kiriyenko last week visited Murmansk.

In August this year, the management of Russia’s nine atomic icebreakers will be transferred from the Murmansk Shipping Company to Rosatom, thus making Mr. Kiriyenko a far more powerful man in the Russian North. With the takeover of the icebreakers, Rosatom also takes over the icebreakers’ service base, Atomflot, located in the city of Murmansk.

-The main task ahead of us now is to start negotiations with all main shipping operators [in the far north], in order to get an overview of the services which will secure a financial development model for Atomflot, he said in a meeting with the icebreaker captains, Interfax reports.

Last week, Kiriyenko appointed the experienced manager Vyacheslav Ruksha, a former head of the Murmansk Shipping Company, new leader of Atomflot.

During the visit, Mr. Kiriyenko also confirmed that the model for Russia’s next generation of nuclear powered icebreaker will be completed in 2009 and that construction will start in 2010, Interfax reports. By 2015, the new generation of vessels will in operation in the North, he added.

Currently, Russia has nine icebreakers, one of which – the Lenin – is about to be turned into a museum. Last year, Russia got the icebreaker “50-years of Victory”, which had been under construction for more than ten years.

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A nuclear plan for Murmansk Oblast 10 June 2008