Moscow, Russia (Ports Europe) October 12, 2024 – A model of a nuclear-powered underwater liquified natural gas (LNG) gas carrier has been demonstrated by Mikhail Kovalchuk, President of Russia’s Kurchatov Institute. He made it clear that the model was an early design idea. It comes over 40 years after a similar American concept and is expected to cost more than a billion euros.
Moscow is looking for ways to export its huge LNG production via its Arctic Northern Sea Route (NSR), an ideal bypass of Western sanctions. However, most of the year, it’s covered by thick ice. Currently, the NSR is used with the help of nuclear-powered icebreakers.
Due to the lack of contact with the ice, the proposed submarine LNG carrier will be able to reach speeds of up to 17 knots (31.5 km/h). This speed will reduce the time of its voyage along the NSR from 20 to 12 days. The project is being developed by the Malakhit design bureau, which specialises in submarine development.
The vessel is supposed to be equipped with three RITM-200 nuclear reactors, which will provide three propulsion electric motors with a capacity of 30 MW each. The length of the vessel should be about 360 m (fits into the length of the largest berth of the port of Sabetta port); width – about 70 m; height – about 30 m; draft – 12-13 m; The cargo capacity is 170-180,000 cubic meters.
Sabeta port is a joint venture between the Russian government and the private Novatek company which owns the Yamal LNG plant on the Yamal Peninsula in the Arctic Kara Sea.
A similar concept for a 390-meter-long nuclear-powered submarine LNG carrier for the Arctic was proposed in 1981 by the U.S. General Dynamics.
Why the exotic submarine solution?
One of the weakest points of the Russian LNG export is the lack of suitable vessels – ice-class ships. Only 5% of the gas carrier fleet is under the control of Russian operators. In other words, more than two-thirds of the world’s gas tankers are managed in one way or another by unfriendly states (Kremlin speak for countries that support the sanctions against Russia).
Earlier, Igor Tonkovidov, CEO of state-owned SovComFlot (SCF), Russia’s largest shipping company, said that the Russian-controlled fleet transports only 10% of Russian foreign trade cargo (mostly oil and coal), while Russia needs 3,000 new large-capacity ships.
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