Keel-laying of the most powerful icebreaker “Leader” for the Northern Sea Route is planned for 2020

Keel-laying of the newest nuclear-powered icebreaker of the project 10510 “Leader” is planned for 2020. This information was given by the chief of the directorate of the program “Ships and marine equipment for development of oil and gas fields” under the department of civil shipbuilding of the United Shipbuilding Corporation Yevgeniy Molodichenko at the international forum “Arctic Shipbuilding” in Archangelsk. According to him, such icebreaker can be demanded in 2027, including for fulfillment of the project “Yamal LNG”.

Therefore, keel-laying of the icebreaker should take place not later than 2020. The issue on mechanisms of financing of the project is being solved now, as he explains. The technical project of the nuclear power unit RITM-400 for the icebreakers “Leader” was elaborated by OKBM Afrikantov from Nizhniy Novgorod (Joint Stock Company “Afrikantov Experimental Design Bureau for Mechanical Engineering”). The project of the icebreaker was presented by the Central Design Bureau “Iceberg”. The package of complex model tests for checking of correctness of chosen technical decisions on the icebreaker “Leader” developed by the Krylov State Research Center was approved. The approximate cost of the project is about 90 milliard rubles. It is supposed that it will be the most powerful icebreaker in the world. The nuclear-powered icebreaker “Leader” is designed for year-round icebreaking support of large-capacity transport vessels with the deadweight more than 100 thousand tonnes and the width more than 50 meters throughout the Northern Sea Route. The estimated speed is about 15 knots in ice with the thickness about two meters, as “Rossiyskaya Gazeta” informs. None of the existing icebreakers has such power.