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Russia Launches Nuclear Icebreaker

by Reuters

   ST PETERSBURG, RUSSIA --

   Russia launched a nuclear-powered icebreaker on Saturday, part of an
   ambitious program to renew and expand its fleet of the vessels in order
   to improve its ability to tap the Arctic's commercial potential.

   The ship, dubbed the Ural, was floated out from a dockyard in St
   Petersburg. It's one of a trio that when completed will be the largest
   and most powerful icebreakers in the world.
   Russia is building new infrastructure and overhauling its ports as,
   amid warmer climate cycles, it readies for more traffic via what it
   calls the Northern Sea Route (NSR), which it envisages being navigable
   year-round.
   The Ural is due to be handed over to Russia's state-owned nuclear
   energy corporation Rosatom in 2022 after the two other icebreakers in
   the same series, Arktika (Arctic) and Sibir (Siberia), enter service.
   "The Ural together with its sisters are central to our strategic
   project of opening the NSR to all-year activity," Alexey Likhachev,
   Rosatom's chief executive, was quoted saying.

   President Vladimir Putin said in April that Russia was stepping up
   construction of icebreakers with the aim of significantly boosting
   freight traffic along its Arctic coast.

   Vying for dominance
   The drive is part of a push to strengthen Moscow's hand in the High
   North as it vies for dominance with traditional rivals Canada, the
   United States and Norway, as well as newcomer China.

   By 2035, Putin said Russia's Arctic fleet would operate at least 13
   heavy-duty icebreakers, nine of which would be powered by nuclear
   reactors.
   The Arctic holds oil and gas reserves equivalent to 412 billion barrels
   of oil, about 22 percent of the world's undiscovered oil and gas, the
   U.S. Geological Survey estimates.

   Moscow hopes the route that runs from Murmansk to the Bering Strait
   near Alaska could take off as it cuts sea transport times from Asia to
   Europe.
   Designed to be crewed by 75 people, the Ural will be able to slice
   through ice up to around 3 meters thick.