The main task of the ice escort was to ensure safe passage of ships through solid ice
On September 6, the nuclear icebreaker Ural escorted a convoy of two vessels including the bulk carrier Smoke and the large container ship NewNewStar (with a container capacity of 3,534 TEU) in the East Siberian Sea. For the first time, a container ship having these dimensions (length of 231 meters and width of 32 meters) entered the waters of the Northern Sea Route.
The Ural icebreaker began escorting the ships at the eastern edge of the Chukchi Sea ice and completed its task at the western edge of the East Siberian Sea ice. The main goal of the icebreaker assistance was to ensure safe passage of the ships through the solid ice bridge. Having completed the passage, the container ship NewNew Star headed towards the port of St. Petersburg and the bulk carrier Smoke headed towards the port of Murmansk without assistance.
"The Northern Sea Route is enjoying increasing popularity among cargo carriers these days. In severe ice conditions of the Chukchi and East Siberian Seas, the crews of the nuclear icebreaker Ural and the convoy vessels showed effective teamwork and professionalism which ensured safe passage through solid ice and maintained service speed of the vessels," commented Andrey Tenitsky, Advisor to Director General of Atomflot.
The icebreaker escorted the ships on the route of 150 nautical miles with an average speed of 12 knots.
For reference:
TEU is a conventional unit, 20 feet equivalent, used in container shipping and in reference to container vehicles.
In 2018, the Russian government appointed Rosatom the NSR (Northern Sea Route) infrastructure operator. The corporation oversees the national project Development of the Northern Sea Route also being involved in the plan for the development of the Northern Sea Route until 2035 and the initiative for the socio-economic development of the Russian Federation until 2030 Year-Round Northern Sea Route approved by the order of the Russian Government.
One of Rosatom's strategic goals is to make the NSR an effective transport artery connecting Europe, Russia and the Asia-Pacific region. Ongoing is a federal project to develop the "Great" Northern Sea Route – a transport corridor from St. Petersburg and Kaliningrad to Vladivostok.
The comprehensive development of the Russian Arctic is a national strategic priority. To increase the NSR traffic is crucial for the success of the outstanding tasks. This logistics corridor is developing due to cargo shipping on a regular basis, building of new nuclear icebreakers and modernization of the relevant infrastructure. Rosatom is actively involved in these efforts.