Analysis of the current state of the Northern Sea Route and the potential development of the icebreaker fleet

Abstract

The article provides a general description of the current state of the Northern Sea Route (NSR), highlights existing problems and prospects of the Northern Sea Route development. There is a tendency to increase the volume of sea freight traffic on the Northern Sea Route, which is facilitated by the development of new oil and gas fields in the Arctic and increased safety of navigation in the NSR. It is noted that despite the revival of transport infrastructure in the western part of the NSR, its eastern part is characterized by a depressed state. The main drawback of the Northern Sea Route is the severe natural conditions that limit the navigation time. Special attention is paid to the Russian nuclear icebreaker fleet. Both its current state and promising nuclear icebreakers, which are currently under construction or in the design stage, are considered. The main requirements for the characteristics of nuclear icebreakers are identified, which are necessary for their effective use on the routes of the Northern Sea Route in the context of increasing volumes of cargo transportation. Thus, an important requirement for maintaining the growth in cargo traffic is to ensure year-round icebreaker assistance to cargo ships along the Northern Sea Route. There is a need for the construction of new nuclear-powered icebreakers due to the expiration of the lifetime of nuclear icebreakers of the Arctic and the Taimyr classes. In the future, in the next decade, the main core of the Arctic nuclear icebreaker fleet should be universal icebreakers capable to provide icebreaking assistance for ships both in coastal areas and estuaries and in the western part of the Arctic.