OREANDA-NEWS. February 22, 2008. A nuclear icebreaker of new generation will be built in Russia by 2015 for year-round navigation along the Northern Sea Route, representatives of Rosmorrechflot (the Federal Agency for Sea and River Transport) said during the international conference on the 75th anniversary of the study and development of the Northern Sea Route held in St.Petersburg on Feb 21 2008.

The estimated cost of the project is 15bln RUR. The preliminary design of the “universal vessel with nuclear reactor” is ready.

190mln RUR was budgeted for this purpose in 2006, 264mln RUR — in 2007. In 2008–2009 the Government is planning to allocate 918mln RUR for the development of the technical project. Some of the conferees said that part of the incomes received from the operation of the Northern Sea Route might also be spent on the project. Presently, Russia has seven nuclear icebreakers and one lighter aboard ship. Russia’s eighth and the world’s biggest icebreaker “50 Years Since Victory” was launched in Mar 2007.

While speaking at a conference of Rostekhnadzor on Feb 15 the director general of Rosatom State Nuclear Energy Corporation Sergey Kiriyenko said that following the reorganization of the nuclear industry the nuclear icebreakers and Atomflot would be given to Rosatom. Earlier, Kiriyenko said that Rosatom was ready to finance the development of Russia’s icebreaker fleet. He said that Russian specialists had designed a new type of reactor for icebreakers, Rhythm-200, which could replace the existing KLT reactors.