“The only source of energy we can provide by the time of the summit in 2012 is a floating nuclear power plant,” said Kiriyenko at a joint meeting of the State Council and the Marine Board. According to Kiriyenko, all production facilities have been provided and are ready to start working. There are currently 6-7 floating NPPs under construction in Severodvinsk, which is why, according to him, “there will be no problem developing an ice-breaker fleet and, accordingly, building the reactors for their power supply”.

The Marine Board will take decisions regarding the construction of new nuclear vessels at their September meeting, said Kiriyenko. “Sergey Ivanov and I decided that, at the Marine Board meeting in September, we will discuss the question of constructing other types of vessels equipped with nuclear facilities,” he said at the joint meeting of the State Council and the Marine Board in the city of Murmansk.

Kiriyenko said that another important question was how many ice-breakers exactly would be needed. “We currently have 7 nuclear ice breakers, but we need only 3 or 4, and we can even prolong their operation periods. They are obviously not operating at full capacity,” he said.

The only question Kiriyenko did not answer was: “What is the real meaning behind constructing the ice breaker fleet? Is it pure business or rather a state service?”