Moscow – On June 24, the Sevmorput nuclear container ship of Atomflot left the port of St. Petersburg and set out on its first subsidized domestic voyage this year along the route: St. Petersburg – Vostochny port (Nakhodka) – Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky – Murmansk. This voyage is being made as part of the federal project “Development of the Northern Sea Route” under the Comprehensive Plan for Modernization and Expansion of the Main Infrastructure.
The ship’s crew has a task to deliver more than a hundred containers, metal structures, lumber, cranes and vehicles to the Far East.
“The ship is loaded by 90% of its capacity” said Vyacheslav Ruksha, Deputy Director General of Rosatom, Director of the NSR Directorate. “The voyage to Vostochny port is planned to take about 22 days. The cargo preparations for the ship’s return voyage are underway. In autumn, the nuclear-powered container ship will make another round trip between the North-West and the Far East. Now the voyages are subsidized from the federal budget, but it is essential to ensure the cost-effectiveness of cargo carriage in the future.”
“The increase of the NSR traffic and organization of regular container ship voyages help reduce logistics costs. This will reduce both the cost and cargo delivery time in both directions. The cargo owners have a chance to deliver their goods at the price of the cargo carriage, the nuclear container ship charter is free. In addition to this one, two more voyages will be undertaken in 2023, viz. by the Sevmorput nuclear container ship in October-November, and by a vessel under a charter agreement,” said Gadzhimagomed Huseynov, First Deputy of the Ministry for the Development of the Far East.
Besides cargo carriage, the crew of the Sevmorput nuclear container ship will ensure that specialists from the Marine Research Center of Lomonosov Moscow State University do their observations onboard the vessel.
During the voyage, the scientists will observe marine mammals and birds, take continuous measurements of water salinity and temperature along the entire route. For the first time, the scientists will install three video cameras with a view of at least 180 degrees in the bow of the vessel to obtain continuous video and photo capturing of the environment along the route. The video- and photographic materials will be further processed by expert zoologists, and then adapted for neural network training in order to develop a service for automated identification of marine mammals and birds.
Background
In 2022, the Ministry of the Russian Federation for the Development of the Far East and the Arctic announced Atomflot the winner in the selection for subsidized round domestic voyages between the European part of the Russian Federation and the Far East. As part of this task, two round trips were made between the ports of the European part of the Russian Federation and the Far Eastern ports in 2022.
In 2022, the Sevmorput nuclear container ship made the round domestic voyages and its crew among other things ensured the delivery of fish products.
The cost of transporting containers by rail between the European part of the Russian Federation and the Far Eastern Federal District was used as a benchmark to set an economically feasible tariff for transportation of containerized cargo, including refrigerated containers with fish products, along the Northern Sea Route. The tariffs were set for transportation of 20 and 40-foot containers, exclusive of loading and unloading at the ports of cargo departure and delivery.
The integrated environmental monitoring being done in the water area of the Northern Sea Route was initiated by Rosatom with the involvement of the Marine Research Center of Lomonosov Moscow State University in 2021. In 2024, this will be included in the subsystem of the state environmental monitoring of the NSR water area.
The comprehensive development of the Russian Arctic is a national strategic priority. To increase the traffic along the NSR is of paramount importance for fulfilling the tasks set in the field of goods transportation and delivery. The development of this logistics corridor is being ensured by organization of regular cargo voyages, construction of new nuclear-powered icebreakers and modernization of the relevant infrastructure. Rosatom and its companies are actively involved in this work.