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The nuclear icebreakers enabling drilling in Russia’s Arctic 

Russia, the US, and China want to develop the Arctic. Here’s how Russia’s multifunctional nuclear vessel would expand shipping routes to Europe and Asia.

By Smruthi Nadig

ussia is home to the only nuclear icebreaker fleet in the world, built to meet maritime transportation requirements through modern nuclear technology. The country’s aim of establishing an Arctic shipping route would open up its north coast to new projects, at a cost beyond money. 

“The Russian shipbuilding industry has been growing for the past few years,” says Alexey Rakhmanov, president of Russia’s United Shipbuilding Corporation.

“This has especially happened in specific market segments, such as research vessels and nuclear-powered icebreakers, and niches such as the ice-resistant, self-propelled research platform North Pole.” 

According to the Russian Government’s Northern Sea Route (NSR) Development Plan, the country aims to transport at least 150 million tonnes of crude oil, liquefied natural gas, coal, and other cargoes via its northern sea route per year, starting in 2030. 

The Centre for Strategic and International Studies claims that Russian President Vladimir Putin personally identifies with Russia’s Arctic ambitions, seeking to use the Arctic narrative of man conquering nature as a distinguishing feature of contemporary Russian nationalism.  

According to London-based think-tank The Polar Connection, increased mining and energy extraction, particularly on the Yamal Peninsula, relates to the NSR expansion.

The Arctic route, which offers a far quicker journey between northern Europe and East Asia than the conventional Suez Canal route, has also been proposed by Russia as an alternative global shipping route. However, this route’s distinctive challenges and risks have held back its otherwise rapid development. 

Nuclear icebreaker fleets in the Arctic 

In January 2022, multinational engineering and constructions company China Communications and Construction and Russian Titanium Resources agreed to co-operate on a mining project to develop a vertically-integrated mining and metallurgical complex for the processing of titanium ores and quartz sands from the Pizhemsky deposit in the Komi Republic, north-west Russia. 

This project to create a national mining cluster would involve the construction of the Sosnogorsk-Indiga railway and the deep sea port of Indiga, in the Arctic region of Russia. This development will need reliable waterways, which only an icebreaker can provide. 

Russia had plans, under the name Project 10510, to build a fleet of Lider-class nuclear-powered icebreakers and ships as part of its aim to improve Arctic shipping – though this strategy has since been downsized to a single vessel, called Rossiya, due to begin operations in 2027.

Authorities docked the nuclear-powered vessel Sevmorput in the Arctic region last year; a 34,600 deadweight tonnage (dwt) vessel carrying up to 1,324 TEU (twenty-foot equivalent unit). The ship will serve on the NSR, while Russia has built a new nuclear-powered icebreaker, Ural, (7,154 dwt) alongside it.

Shipbuilder Rosatomflot is a subsidiary of Russian state nuclear company Rosatom and JSC Baltiysjiy Zavod, part of the United Shipbuilding Corporation. Recently, the company signed a contract for the construction of a unique, multifunctional nuclear service vessel that would operate from 2029. The vessel is designed to perform a full range of work on recharging nuclear plants of existing Russian nuclear icebreakers.  

“A multifunctional nuclear-technical support vessel will ensure the proper functioning of a modern icebreaking group. Financing of its construction is assumed according to the scheme: 50% from the budget of the Russian Federation, 50% from the investment program of the State Corporation Rosatom,” Russian Deputy Minister of Industry and Trade Victor Yevtukhov said in a press release.  

Building an “Arctic economy” in remote parts of Russia 

The Russian Government is trying to build a new Arctic economy. According to the government statement, the NSR is a “key element” in developing transport connectivity in Russia’s “most hard-to-access” territories. The leading Arctic companies, such as Vostok Oil, Novatek, and Gazprom Neft, intend to increase the volume of shipping in Arctic waters to over 190 million tonnes over the next few years.  ………………………………

Arctic to look like “ice cubes melting in a glass of water” 

………………………….  the main purpose of the icebreakers is simply to break ice. Broken ice melts more easily, becoming water that absorbs more sunlight. This causes an increase in local temperatures, thus leading to more ice melting. 

The Arctic is warming much faster than the rest of the world as the high sunlight reflectivity, or albedo, of Arctic ice is lost. Compared to ice, seawater absorbs more sunlight, meaning that water then warms up and evaporates more readily, itself becoming a greenhouse gas. 

Small ships can have big effects in the Arctic. Non-profit US think tank the Center for the Advancement of the Steady State Economy reported that an icebreaker ship passing through the ice for around 620 miles, which leaves an ice-free wake of 33 feet, would open an area of water of 3.9 square miles over the entire cruise.  

Even though the Arctic Sea covers around 2,500 miles, all icebreaking harms the environment. Continuous use of icebreaker ships in the Arctic would lead to looking more like “ice cubes melting in a glass of water,” the report says. 

Russian development through thawing sea ice 

………………………………………………….. The Financial Times reported that according to data from NASA, the Arctic Circle’s ice sheet has shrunk by 13% over the past ten years due to the region’s unusually high temperatures, allowing for greater shipping access. 

…………………………………….. As a result of global warming, seasonal sea ice in the Arctic is melting, and opportunities for human activity are expanding. These changes not only allow for growth in tourism, fishing, and military activities, but also enable oil and gas exploration, mining, and development in new regions.

Increased activity in the Arctic will impact marine life, which had previously been largely undisturbed. While Arctic ecosystems remain relatively poorly understood, Arctic industrialisation has already increased geopolitical tensions, which will undoubtedly worsen as the ice melts. 

August 17, 2023 - Posted by Christina Macpherson | ARCTIC, climate change, Russia, technology