Russian state atomic energy corporation Rosatom’s subsidiary Atomflot, which operates the world’s only nuclear-powered icebreaker fleet, has, earlier this month, completed the dock repairs at Murmansk of the Northern Wave motor ship owned by an external customer, according to a press release.
A Rosatom statement said that Northern Wave was the fourth vessel of external customers to have used Atomflot’s ship repairing services since the beginning of this year.
“To put this into perspective, five vessels were repaired in 2021”, the statement said.
“Our company provides a full range of operations on dock repair of ships. During the winter-spring navigation, nuclear icebreakers stay in the waters of the Northern Sea Route, and we can use the available ship repair facilities. We are the only company in the Murmansk region which has the necessary equipment for repair and turning of large-sized ship parts”, Atomflot’s Chief Engineer Oleg Darbinyan said in a statement.
Murmansk port is the main base of the Northern Sea Route, which, via the Arctic, is the shortest route between East Asian and West European ports. Atomflot’s fleet of nuclear-powered icebreakers are designed to keep the Northern Sea Route open for shipping throughout the year.
According to the statement, in 2018, Atomflot put into operation a dock workshop with state-of-the-art high-performance machine tools.
“For example, one of the three lathes is one of its kind in the Murmansk region. Its dimensions allow machining parts weighing up to 70 tons and up to 18 meters long”, the statement said.
“The dock workshop building also accommodates an area for repair of sea valves equipped with advanced equipment. To perform ship repairs, Atomflot has constantly updated production facilities with workshops, two floating docks, a tugboat, a floating crane, and a developed mooring line”, it said.
For the prompt repair of steam turbine and diesel installations, pumping equipment, onboard systems and pipelines, as well as electrical equipment, Atomflot signed a three-year contract in 2021 with a branch of Rosatom subsidiary Atomenergoremont — Kolatomenergoremont — which has considerable production assets and is ready to engage the necessary number of personnel in short time to solve the most challenging tasks, it added.
