News
Publish date: April 14, 1998
Written by: Igor Kudrik
News
Financial shortfalls Murmansk Shipping Company (MSCo), operator of nuclear icebreakers, experienced since the beginning of 90-s, did not allow to perform the repairs of Rossiya icebreaker as it was scheduled. The counted on one-year was to be expanded to 3,5, making the overall repair costs by 15-20% higher.
Currently, Murmansk Shipping Company operates 7 nuclear powered icebreakers and one nuclear powered lighter vessel. The newest icebreaker, Yamal, was commissioned in 1993. In 1997, MSCo management stated that the two oldest nuclear-powered vessels, the Arktika (commissioned 1975) and the Sibir (1977), would be taken out of service shortly. Today, these two vessels are laid up at icebreakers base Atomflot in Murmansk.
According to Vyacheslav Ruksha, director of the atomic icebreaker fleet, the last year was marked by high traffic activity in the Arctic, which the currently four operational icebreakers could hardly cope. In the meantime, Sovetskiy Souz icebreaker is pending repairs, what makes Ruksha to celebrate the fact that Rossiya is eventually back in business.
Ruksha puts much hopes on the new 50 Years Anniversary of Victory icebreaker which is currently under construction at the shipyard in St. Petersburg. The icebreaker was launched in 1993. Its delivery to the Murmansk Shipping Company is behind the schedule. Only a minor part of the 27.5 million USD for completion of the vessel, promised for 1997, had arrived at St. Petersburg shipyard.
Recent attacks on Ukraine’s Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant "mark the beginning of a new and gravely dangerous front of the war," the UN atomic agency's director general said last week.
After years of inaction, Germany is working on its Carbon Management Strategy to resolve how CCS can play a role in climate action in industry. At the end of February, the Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Climate Action published first key points and a proposal to amend the law Kohlenstoffdioxid Speicherungsgesetz (KSpG). Bellona Deutschland, who was actively involved in the previous stakeholder dialogue submitted a statement in the association hearing.
In the midst of a global discussion on whether natural gas should be used as a transitional fuel and whether emissions from its extraction, production, transport and use are significantly less than those from other fossil fuels, Russia has developed ambitious plans to increase its own production of liquified natural gas (LNG) in the Arctic – a region with 75% of proven gas reserves in Russia – to raise its share in the international gas trade.
In this news digest, we monitor events that impact the environment in the Russian Arctic. Our main focus lies in identifying the factors that contribute to pollution risks and climate change.