Big pull for arctic icebreakers
Spains Fluidmecanica is to supply deck equipment for the largest icebreakers built so far.
The order followed this year’s agreement between the Russian State Atomic Energy Corporation (Rosatom) and the St Petersburg Baltiysky Zavod JSC shipyard for a further two huge new 173.3m long nuclear powered icebreakers.
These two monsters follow the 2012 contract for sister vessel Arktika, the first ship of the class which will be delivered in 2017. However, the real figure of note for the deck equipment is that the projected tonnage is 33,540 tonnes and the power (provided by two RITM-200 pressurized water reactors) will reach a huge 175MW.
As these ships will be expected to break ice in the arctic area all year round the deck equipment will have to be particularly robust.
So, Fluidmecanica is supplying a the main towing winch with bollard pull of 200 tonnes including a storage drum with capacity for 1,000m of 58mm rope and incorporating heating systems to keep the whole thing from freezing solid. Further, special steel will be used throughout the construction as the winch will need to cope with a huge range of ambient temperatures, running all the way from +35ºC down to -40ºC.
The icebreakers will be delivered at the end of 2019 and 2020.
By Stevie Knight
