The tests, conducted at the Krylov Institute’s frozen pool included simulating the characteristics of high latitude sailing, including though open water, as well as in conditions of packed ice.

According to the Institute, the Iceburg construction bureau, other industry organizations and Finnish consultants are working on a technical project that will be completed in 2009. After this, keel laying for the new nuclear icebreaker will begin, most likely at the Baltic Shipyard, where most of Russia’s nuclear icebreaker fleet was built, b-port.com reported.  

Recently, Sergei Kiriyenko, chief of Russia’s state nuclear corporation Rosatom said that engineering work on new generation icebreakers would be complete and federal money invested by 2009 for construction of the vessels.

“Now it is extremely important for us to understand the entire icebreaker development programme for the next 10 to 15 years ahead in order that we can take into account the number of vessels in the Arctic and on the way to Sevmorput,” where nuclear vessels are decommissioned, Kiriyenko said in a meeting with Prime Minister Vladimir Putin last week. “Accordning to preliminary evaluations, it will be necessary over the next few years to invest in not less than three to four icebreakers,” Kiriyenko said.