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Publish date: October 17, 2008
News
The test represents the first time such vessels have been towed by Russia with the use of specially designed support pontoons designed to avert a sinking similar to that of the K-159 incident in August 2003.
The transport was carried out at night, making conditions more difficult, but the experiment came off successfully.
The pontoon project was financed by Great Britain through the Arctic Military Environmental Cooperation (AMEC) programme, the B-port news agency quoted Nerpa as saying. Nerpa built the pontoons. Analogous systems for transporting boats that cannot travel on their own power do not exist in Russia.
But in 2006, the Dutch firm Dockwise was contracted to move the Russian K-60 decommissioned submarine with one of its so called heavy transport vessels by Norway in accord with the AMEC programme. Such vessels have submergible decks, which lift derelict submarines out of the water.
Each of the four support pontoons developed by Nerpa can hold 200 tons. For extra durability, the pontoons are double cushioned and two decks. The pontoons themselves balance a submarine during transport independent of weather conditions and wave height, and provide seaworthiness to even damaged submarines in wave conditions of more than four points.
A first generation decommissioned submarine was chosen for the experiment. The operation was undertaken within the framework of dismantling the November class submarine, project number 291, which is financed in various degrees by the U.K and Norway under the Global Partnership programme. After the experiment with the pontoons is certified by a government commission, they will be passes on to the emergency and rescue operations wing of Russia’s Northern Fleet.
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.