Rosatom CEO Alexey Likhachev said on the Rossiya 24 TV channel that the corporation is discussing with the Russian government the possibility of building new, in addition to the already contracted, most powerful nuclear icebreakers of the 22220 project at the moment.
He recalled that in 2020, the operation of the main nuclear icebreaker of the project 22220 "Arctic" began and that at different stages of construction at the "Baltic Plant" in St. Petersburg there are four serial nuclear-powered ships of this project — "Siberia", "Ural", "Yakutia" and "Chukotka".
"And we are very much thinking and consulting with the government, the relevant ministries, whether to extend this order, since the volume of traffic (along the Northern Sea Route) is increasing and international transit has already doubled only last year," RIA Novosti quoted Likhachev as saying.
According to him, "the target figures for transportation along the Northern Sea Route of 29 million tons were last year."
"In my opinion, we crossed the line of 32 million tons in mid-December. Well, we hope that we will also move at a faster pace in terms of transportation. Therefore, we have a need for the advanced creation of the Arctic fleet, " the head of Rosatom added.
Earlier, the head of the United Shipbuilding Corporation (USC), Alexey Rakhmanov, in an interview with FAN, said that Russia holds the palm as the world's main icebreaking power.