News
Publish date: December 1, 1998
Written by: Thomas Nilsen
News
MURMANSK/OSLO (Bellona Web): Murmansk Shipping Company (MSC) operates seven nuclear powered icebreakers and one nuclear powered container vessel. In addition, MSC has several cargo and supply ships for the oil industry in the Russian Arctic.
"We have the best vessels in the north, including the most powerful icebreakers in the world," says newly appointed director of MSC, Vyacheslav Ruksha. He underlines the importance of keeping the civilian nuclear fleet operational for the expanding oil and gas industry in the Russian Arctic oceans. The eastern Barents Sea, the Petchora Sea and the Kara Sea is ice-covered for six months a year, and the use of nuclear powered icebreakers will help Lukoil significantly during drilling operations.
Despite the exceptional cold conditions in the Russian Arctic waters, which has lead to thick ice in early November, only three of the nuclear powered icebreakers are currently in operation. These are the Sovietsky Soyuz, the Taimyr and the Arctica. The rest is laid up at the icebreakers’ service base RTP Atomflot in Murmansk. This is mainly due to economical reasons. MSC cannot afford to buy new uranium fuel for the reactors, and there is a shortfall in the funding for maintenance.
MSC has also refused to use more than one icebreaker for the transportation of nickel and ore from the Norilsk Combines’ port in Dudinka at the Yenitsey River. Norilsk has not been able to pay MSC for its icebreaker services.
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.