Next Generation Heavy-Duty Icebreakers - Nuclear Powered Atomic Fleet in the Works for Russia
Construction of a new heavy-duty icebreaker of a new generation, the development of Russia's first industrial fast-neutron reactor with a capacity of 1200 megawatts, and the physical launch of the Akademik Lomonosov floating nuclear station. Vladimir Putin discussed today all of these large-scale projects with the head of Rosatom, Alexey Likhachev, who, among other things, said that Rosatom is still the world leader in the construction of nuclear power plants.
Dmitry Petrov reporting about the further strengthening of this leadership.
Russia is the only country in the world with an atomic icebreaker fleet. This allows us to use the Northern Sea Route to deliver goods to East Asia throughout the entire year. And these volumes will only grow, by additionally switching cargo traffic from the southern seas. The forecast is to reach 70 million tons by 2030.
Vladimir Putin: I'd like to speak with you about the company's investment program, but I'm asking you to begin with plans regarding the construction of an icebreaker nuclear fleet.
Alexei Likhachev, Rosatom General Director: This requires us, in addition to the 3 universal icebreakers which are already under construction at the Baltic plant and have a capacity of 60 megawatts to build 2 more universal icebreakers, the construction of a small flotilla of medium capacity icebreakers in order not to omit the western direction of supplies to Europe, and adoption at the turn of 2018-2019 decisions on the construction of a new-generation icebreaker.
- Leader?
- The Leader icebreaker will be 120-megawatts, that's many-fold what we have now.
They don't yet exist in the world. Ours will be the first. Last year Rosatom successfully fulfilled all its goals: 2 new power units of Rostov NPP were launched at once, as well as the sixth unit of Voronezh and the second phase of Leningrad NPP. Which allowed them to break the Soviet record of electricity generation from the peaceful atom. Today, this accounts for 203 billion kilowatt-hours. The newest projects: fast neutron reactors, nuclear fuel processing modules, the so-called "Breakthrough" project allow Rosatom to maintain world leadership. Today, we're building more reactors abroad than all other countries combined.
Alexei Likhachev: "Of course, we'd like to break away from such an experimental project and to shift towards an industrial complex and start building fast reactors around the world. We came up with such proposals to the government, and we hope that in the 2020s we will be able to include into our power system the first fast-neutron reactor with a capacity of 1200 megawatt".
The corporation actively participates in the digital transformation of the whole Russian economy, and special attention is paid to the training of personnel. Starting with kindergarten, then school, technical universities, and of course, the National Research Nuclear University, MEPhI. Annually more than 1000 graduates are employed in the company's divisions. "Rosatom" is a three-time winner of the working professions championship, "WorldSkills." They plan to hold a gathering of world industry leaders in Russia to secure contracts for training specialists in the near future.
Dmitry Petrov, Maria Rodimova. Vesti.