As the Kommersant newspaper reported in the material of Tatiana Dyatel and Dmitry Kozlov, "Russia" does not give up. The price and timing of the release of a nuclear icebreaker may change," the cost of building a super-powerful nuclear icebreaker "Russia" of project 10510 (LC-120YA, cipher "Leader"), previously amounting to 128 billion rubles, may increase by 40-60%, and the timing of its construction may shift to the right. It is assumed that the icebreaker necessary for regular year-round navigation along the Northern Sea Route should be built at the Zvezda shipyard in 2027. According to Kommersant's sources, there are already delays in the production of large hull castings, the cost and timing of work on the production of individual parts of the icebreaker's nuclear power plant are growing.
Model of the nuclear icebreaker project 10510 (LC-120YA, cipher "Leader") (c) JSC "TSKB "Iceberg"The cost of the state contract for the construction of the main nuclear icebreaker "Russia" of project 10510 "Leader" may grow, and the deadlines for the delivery of the vessel for some hull works at the Zvezda shipyard (managed by a consortium of Rosneft, Rosneftegaz and Gazprombank) are already behind schedule, follows from the minutes of the meeting with Deputy Head of the Ministry of Industry and Trade Viktor Yevtukhov from 13 Martha (there is a "Kommersant").
According to the interlocutors of Kommersant, familiar with the discussion of the issue, we can talk about an increase in the cost of the state contract by 40-60%.
State contract worth 127.6 billion rubles. The contract for the construction of the main nuclear icebreaker "Russia" was signed in April 2020, its customer is Atomflot, the completion date is December 2027. An icebreaker with a capacity of 120 MW should provide year-round wiring of vessels along the Northern Sea Route with a commercial speed of 10-12 knots for the export of hydrocarbons to foreign markets. First of all, the icebreaker must ensure the year-round export of LNG from NOVATEK's Arctic projects in Yamal and Gydan.
By the end of April, Rosatom, based on Rosneft data, must submit a report to the Ministry of Industry and Trade on the increase in the cost and timing of work. At the same time, as follows from the protocol, Deputy Minister Yevtukhov stressed "the impossibility of disrupting the deadline". The question of the need to postpone the deadline, according to Kommersant, has already been brought to Vladimir Putin. In the office of Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin, Kommersant reported that the issue has not yet been discussed in the government. Rosneft declined to comment.
The Ministry of Industry and Trade of Kommersant confirmed that the issue of timing and cost was discussed at the meeting, and reported that "only according to the results of the examination, if necessary, it will be possible to reasonably talk about an objective increase in the duration and cost of construction."
Rosneft, according to the minutes of the meeting, explains the need to increase the cost and postpone the deadlines by disrupting the supply of large hull castings - ice tooth, rudder pen brackets and external propeller shaft brackets, which during 2022 the Ukrainian plant Energomashspetsstal, located in Kramatorsk, was supposed to supply to Zvezda (it was reported about the destruction of the industrial premises of the plant as a result of military actions in Ukraine).
The contract with the new manufacturer - UZTM-KARTEX - has not yet been concluded, and the delivery dates of these castings have been tentatively postponed to August 2025.
By 12% (up to 44 billion rubles) the cost of contracts for the supply of the nuclear power plant (nuclear power plant) of the icebreaker "Russia", which includes steam turbine units (PTU) of "Power Machines", the reactor unit RITM-400 "Atomenergomash", may increase. Thus, the contract with Power Machines has increased in price by 65%, to 9.48 billion rubles, the delivery dates have been postponed for eight to ten months - to the end of 2025.
In Rosatom, Kommersant was informed that Atomenergomash is producing the RITM-400 on contract terms. "Power Machines" confirmed to Kommersant the production of vocational schools in the contract period - 2025. The validity of a significant increase in the prices of purchased materials and components of vocational schools (including Rosatom enterprises) was reviewed by the customer's commission and confirmed, they reported.
The untimely delivery of the components of the nuclear power plant may delay the formation of the central part of the hull, in particular the engine rooms, of the Rossiya and shift the overall construction schedule of the vessel, says a source of Kommersant close to Rosneft.
According to the interlocutors of Kommersant, there is a backlog in the work on the part of Zvezda itself: to reduce it, the shipyard needs to attract more workers for hull and welding work on the icebreaker.
By mid-March, instead of 15% of the total planned work, only 5% had been completed. "If we do not increase the speed of hull work by a multiple, then the components of the nuclear power plant will hardly be needed in 2025," the interlocutors of Kommersant note.
The construction of a nuclear icebreaker is the first experience of the Zvezda shipyard, says Mikhail Grigoriev, head of the Gekon consulting Center. "Having no idea about the timing of individual stages of construction, the possibility of parallel work on other nodes of the icebreaker, it is difficult to say how critical this delay is for its delivery," he notes.
As for year-round navigation on the Northern Sea Route, it primarily relates to the work of gas carriers of NOVATEK projects, since, according to the rules of navigation in the waters of the Northern Sea Route 2022, year-round in severe ice conditions, even under the wiring of an icebreaker, only ships of the Arctic ice class Arc7 and higher can sail. Only NOVATEK, in addition to Norilsk Nickel, has vessels of the required ice class. The gas carriers under construction for NOVATEK's second project - Arctic LNG 2 - at Zvezda in partnership with South Korean Samsung Heavy Industries have improved ice penetration, and those under construction at DSME have even greater capacity. "This suggests that year-round navigation in the eastern part of the Northern Sea Route can be started without waiting for the icebreaker Leader to be commissioned," believes Mr. Grigoriev.
Hull structures of the main nuclear icebreaker "Russia" of project 10510 (LK-120YA, cipher "Leader") under construction at LLC Zvezda Shipbuilding Complex in Bolshoy Kamen (Primorsky Krai). At the top - the status for October 2022, at the bottom - for March 2023 (c) Telegram channel "Notes of Midshipman Ptichkin"
