(tass.ru) - Nornickel plans to conclude a contract for 19 years for the Sibir icebreaker of project 22220 to use it as icebreaking escort of ships that provide transportation of goods for the investment projects and the company's main activity in the Norilsk industrial region in the north of the Krasnoyarsk Territory, said Ravil Nasybullov, the director of the Nornickel's logistics department, on Tuesday at the Northern Sustainable Development Forum.
The new universal nuclear-powered icebreakers of project 22220 are being built at the Baltic Shipyard on the order of Rosatom and are the largest and most powerful in the world. The Arktika and Siberia had previously become part of the Russian nuclear fleet.
"We plan to contract for a long-term perspective the Sibir nuclear icebreaker of project 22220, which we have already been using since the beginning of 2022, the contract is at the signing stage," Nasybullov said. He also noted that this icebreaker is becoming the third icebreaker along with the Taimyr nuclear-powered icebreaker and the Admiral Makarov diesel icebreaker already involved. The icebreakers are brought in to service an additional grouping of the transport fleet.
According to him, the fleet has increased due to a significant boost in cargo transportation by more than 500 thousand tons over the base of 1.4-1.5 million tons of cargo transported to the port of Dudinka in the north of the Krasnoyarsk Territory in previous years. The growth in cargo transportation, in turn, was associated with the start of the company's largest investment projects, in particular, the Sulfur Program (utilization of sulfur dioxide at the Nadezhda Metallurgical and Copper Plants).
About the forum
The IV Northern Forum for Sustainable Development is being held in Yakutsk from November 28 to December 1. This year representatives of 10 countries confirmed their participation in the forum. The main topic was the development of traditional and alternative types of energy in the Arctic.
The Northern Forum for Sustainable Development is an annual international expert platform that has been permanently operating since 2019 to discuss the problems and prospects for sustainable development of the North and the Arctic.
The event is being held as part of the plan for Russia's chairmanship of the Arctic Council in 2021-2023.
The chairmanship events are operated by the Roscongress Foundation. The organizers are the government of Yakutia, the international organization of the northern regions "Northern Forum" and the North-Eastern Federal University (NEFU), which initiated the event. TASS is the general partner of the forum.
