Bellona nuclear digest. March 2024
A survey of events in the field of nuclear and radiation safety relating to Russia and Ukraine.
News
Publish date: November 16, 2004
News
On October 21, the head of Federal Agency on marine and river transport Vyacheslav Ruksha told journalists that it is time to start construction of new nuclear icebreakers, otherwise all the existing nuclear icebreakers would exceed their lifetime and could be taken out of operation by 2015. The price tag of the modern nuclear icebreaker today is from $250m to $300m, RBC reported.
According to Ruksha, the development of the new atomic icebreakers design is to start already in 2005.The end of construction could be expected in 2011. The state budget has earmarked about $1.7m for the design development next year. Some Russian companies operating in the Arctic like Norilsk Nickel and Gazprom could be offered to share the bill for the new icebreakers construction. At the same time the lifetime of some nuclear icebreakers could be extended, for example, the lifetime of Arctika icebreaker may be prolonged up to 175 thousand hours, ITAR-TASS reported.
All the nuclear-powered icebreakers (except Lenin) were built at the Baltiysky shipyard in St Petersburg from 1974 till 1992. Two icebreakers Taimyr and Vaygach were constructed at the Finnish shipyard Wartsila. Five nuclear icebreakers are currently in operation. The construction of nuclear icebreaker 50 years of Victory, which started 11 years ago, should be completed soon, RBC reported.
A survey of events in the field of nuclear and radiation safety relating to Russia and Ukraine.
Russian president Vladimir Putin has told the United Nations atomic energy watchdog that Russia plans to restart Ukraine’s embattled Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant, currently occupied by Russian troops and technicians, fueling worries about a serious nuclear accident on the front lines of a grinding military conflict.
Wednesday, April 10, 2024 | Brussels, Belgium – Today, the European Parliament approved the newly revised Construction Products regulation (CPR)...
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.