
The fragile environmental coalitions cleaning up the Black Sea oil spill
This article by Angelina Davydova, editor of Bellona’s Ecology & Rights magazine, first appeared in The Moscow Times. The oil spill in ...
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Publish date: March 1, 2006
News
Deputy Transportation Minister Alexander Misharin said that the 50 Years of Victory nuclear icebreaker was scheduled to be commissioned in October after passing sea trials in September.
The 159-meter (522ft) long and 30-meter (100ft) wide vessel, initially named the Urals, will be the world’s largest nuclear icebreaker, with a deadweight of 25,000 metric tons. An upgrade of the Arktika-class nuclear-powered icebreaker, it is designed to break through ice up to 2.8 meters deep (9.2ft). Misharin said two diesel-powered icebreakers designed to assist navigation in the Baltic Sea were under construction. According to the official, Russia will need six to ten nuclear-powered icebreakers in the next twenty years, as the demand for icebreakers is rising with the development of the Arctic shelf.
"If we do not do anything, we will be left with one, at a maximum two, nuclear-powered icebreakers," Misharin said, adding that funds for the development of a new-generation icebreaker, to be commissioned after 2020, have already been allocated from the 2006 federal budget. The Russian nuclear-powered commercial fleet currently consists of five Arktika-class icebreakers (Arktika, Sibir, Rossiya, Sovetskiy Soyuz, and Yamal), two Taymyr-class river icebreakers (Taymyr and Vaygach), and the Sevmorput transport ship, reported RIA-Novosti.
This article by Angelina Davydova, editor of Bellona’s Ecology & Rights magazine, first appeared in The Moscow Times. The oil spill in ...
The following speech was given by Bellona nuclear expert Dmitry Gorchakov at the Arctic Frontiers conference, which was in session this week in Troms...
Social media are ablaze after Bellona founder Frederic Hauge met Motvind’s Eivind Salen on Norwegian national broadcaster NRK’s Debatten program last night.
"Maritime transport along the Northern Sea Route remains a bad idea. Even with a warmer climate, cold, wind and darkness will define the Arctic winter," said Bellona's Senior Adviser Sigurd Enge to a packed hall at the Arctic Frontiers conference.