OREANDA-NEWS. July 29, 2008. Director General of Rosatom State Nuclear Energy Crorporation Sergey Kiriyenko has met with Economic Development Minister of Italy Claudio Scajola.

As a result of the meeting, Rosatom State Nuclear Energy Corporation and the Ministry of Economic Development of Italy have signed an agreement for the designing and construction of a ship for transportation of containers with spent nuclear fuel and radioactive waste.

The document was signed by Deputy Director General of Rosatom State Nuclear Energy Corporation Yevgeny Yevstratov and Head of Industrial Policy Management Department of the Ministry of Economic Development of Italy Giovanni Battista Narbone. The cost of the work to be done under the agreement is 71.5mln EUR. The project will be financed by the Italian side.

The vessel will be designed by Fincantieri company (Italy). It will have a gross tonnage of 4,000 tons and is to be built in 2.5 years. So, in 2011 the ship will already be in service.

The vessel will have the following parameters: length – 84 meters, breadth – 14 meters, height – 16.7 meters, full draft – 4 meters. The ship will have two hermetic cargo holds capable of holding a total of 720 tons (18 containers 40 tons each). The ship will be able to carry any type of spent nuclear fuel and radioactive waste. It will meet all Russian and international safety standards. The ship will have a revolving electro-hydraulic crane with a weight-lifting capacity of 45 tons and a radius of 4–15 meters. The vessel will have a speed of 12 knots and will be able to autonomously navigate for two months (60 days). The maximum steaming distance will be 3,000 sea miles.

Rosatom has named Atomflot FSUE as the owner and the operator of the container ship. Due to high ice reinforcement the ship will be able to navigate the arctic seas in the summer and autumn. The vessel is supposed to go along the Northern Sea Route between the village of Gremikha, Andreyev Bay, Saida Bay, Severodvinsk and other nuclear submarine recycling sites. The ship is supposed to meet North-Western Russia’s demand for such vessels.

The next big Russian-Italian project in the field of nuclear safety will be the construction of radioactive waste treatment and storage facilities at Andreyev Bay. The parties have already completed their joint project to dismantle two nuclear submarines. Presently, they are dismantling a Victor 601 class submarine and will shortly start to dismantle Victor-604 class submarines (4.7mln EUR project).