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Russia on Friday held a launching ceremony for a powerful nuclear icebreaker, called Sibir (Siberia), in its drive to prepare a fleet for navigating the Northern Passage and hauling goods, particularly energy, to Asian markets.
The massive new ship measures 173 meters in length and has two nuclear reactors with the propulsion power of 60 megawatts.
It can crush ice up to three meters thick and carry a crew of 53 people.
Organizers at the launching ceremony in Saint-Petersburg's Baltic Shipyard broke a bottle of champagne against the vessel's massive hull.
The Sibir is the second of the three vessels of Project 22220, a Russian class of nuclear-powered icebreakers, which are to become the world’s largest and most powerful nuclear icebreakers, said RT.
The first one, called Arktika (the Arctic), was floated out last summer and is set to be completed in 2019.
The Sibir will be commissioned a year later.
The new series is meant to ensure year-round navigation in western Arctic, and the design of the vessels makes it possible to use them in the Arctic Ocean as well as in rivers, according to the Rosatom nuclear energy corporation.
The Northern Passage is a naval route gradually becoming more accessible due to climate change. It is 12 to 15 days shorter than traditional commercial routes through the Suez Canal.
(AFP)
