New icebreaker reactors under development
The Afrikantov OKB Mechanical Engineering in Nizhny Novgorod has started the development of a reactor for Russia’s next generation of nuclear-powered icebreakers.
Although an official order from federal authorities has yet to come, the engineering company has already started developing the power generating unit. The company has designed and constructed the reactors for all of Russia’s existing nuclear icebreakers, and the plant leadership is confident that a new order eventually will come.
As previously reported, Russian authorities have said that the construction of a new class of nuclear-powered icebreakers would start in 2010. According to a federal program on the development of the Arctic, the new icebreaker is to be completed by year 2016.
The new reactor will be far more efficient than former models. According to Rossiiskaya Gazeta, the new icebreaker reactor will use uranium up to 60 times more efficiently than the generators currently in use.
The design of the new icebreaker will enable it to operate both in rivers and in the Arctic Ocean. New technology will make it possible for the vessel to stick 11 meters into the water at open sea, and only nine meter in rivers.
The Joint Stock Company “Afrikantov OKBM” is the part of state vertical integrated company JSC “Atomenergoprom”, which provides full production cycle of nuclear power engineering — from uranium production to nuclear power plant construction and energy generation. Since the 1960s OKBM has been the chief designer of ship-based reactor plants and fast neutron reactors.
