Afrikantov OKBM to manufacture equipment for two icebreaker reactors by 2016
NIZHNY NOVGOROD. Nov 14 (Interfax) - The Afrikantov Experimental Design Bureau for Mechanical Engineering (Afrikantov OKBM), a unit of the engineering division of state nuclear corporation Rosatom, will manufacture and deliver equipment for two reactors of the flagship Project 22220 icebreaker being built by Baltiysky Zavod Shipbuilding, Afrikantov OKBM said in a press release.
Afrikantov OKBM told Interfax that the equipment is supposed to be ready by the beginning of 2016.
The press release said that the RITM-200 reactors with thermal capacity of 175 MW each developed by Afrikantov OKBM are part of the dual reactor power unit that will be installed on the new icebreaker.
Afrikantov OKBM will manufacture the parts and assemblies, confirm the safety of the reactors and resource characteristics of the equipment, and arrange technical support for products manufactured by subcontractors.
"The unit is lighter and more compact, has increased resources and service life and, consequently, is economically more efficient. In terms of design, this solution is achieved thanks to the development of an integrated steam generating unit. RITM-200 has a minimal number of core refuelings (fuel needs to be replaced once every seven years rather than once every three years)," the company said.
Other units of the Atomenergomash group are also involved in the work on the reactor plant for the icebreaker. The vessel equipment will be made at the ZiO-Podolsk engineering plant, to which Ukraine's Energomashspetsstal will deliver the reactor shell blanks (32 units) by the end of 2013.
"The reactor plant completion is January 2016, installation will take until December. The core fueling [will take place] in the first quarter of 2017, the physical launch another few months later," Atomflot first deputy chief executive Mustafa Kashka was quoted as saying in Rosatom's corporate newspaper.
Baltiysky Zavod Shipbuilding launched the construction of a 60 MW Project 22220 nuclear icebreaker, an order from Atomflot, Russia's company and service base that maintains the world's only fleet of nuclear-powered icebreakers, on November 5.
The icebreaker was developed by the Aisberg central design bureau in 2009. It is 173.3 meters long and 34 meters wide. The design draft is 10.5 meters,. The minimal working draft is 8.55 meters and water displacement is 33,540 tonnes.
The double-draft design makes the ship applicable in Arctic waters and in polar rivers.
The icebreaker is to sail in the Barents, Pechora and Kara seas, and in shallower parts of the Yenisei River and in the mouth of the Ob River.
Reports said earlier that the contract to build the first of the three Project 22220 icebreakers was signed in August 2012. It is estimated at 37 billion rubles. The icebreaker is to be commissioned in November 2015.
LLC Baltiysky Zavod Shipbuilding is the successor to the bankrupt Baltiysky Zavod . The shipyard is currently working on a number of major orders, including the construction of the Akademik Lomonosov floating nuclear power plant, the 60 MW Project 22220 nuclear icebreaker and the stern section of the Mistral helicopter carrier.
Atomflot, which is part of the nuclear energy corporation Rosatom, has five icebreakers.