Insurance Survey at nuclear-powered icebreaker

August 12-14, 2015, RANI inspectors held the first insurance inspection at the lead multipurpose nuclear icebreaker of project 22220 - "Arktika", which is under construction at the site of LLC "Baltic plant – shipbuilding" (hereinafter – Baltic plant).

The Customer:  Federal State Unitary Enterprise «Atomflot» of the State Atomic Energy Corporation “Rosatom”.

The construction of the icebreaker is supposed to be carried out in accordance with the state Contract between “Atomflot” and the Baltic plant with the delivery date - 29.12.2017.

Furthermore the Baltic plant laid the first serial icebreaker of project 22220 named "Siberia" and arranged preparatory works to start the construction of the second serial icebreaker named "Ural" with the delivery to “Atomflot”, the Customer, in 2019 and late 2020, respectively.
The Customer of the design documentation and construction is "Atomflot" of State Corporation "Rosatom", Murmansk.
The General designer of the icebreaker is OJSC Central design Bureau "Iceberg", Saint-Petersburg.

JSC "Afrikantov OKBM", Nizhny Novgorod, will develop the reactor and supply icebreaker “Arktika”  with it.

The developer of automatic process control system for the icebreaker is JSC "Concern research and manufacturing association "Aurora", St. Petersburg.

The General contractor for the construction of the icebreaker is LLC "Baltic plant-Shipbuilding", St. Petersburg.

The Insurance Survey was mainly aimed:

• to assess the condition of the construction site of LLC "Baltic plant – Shipbuilding", analyze the safety level of installation and construction works;
  

• to assess the insurance risk of the site in order to arrange nuclear third party insurance cover for the process of supplying the icebreaker with fresh nuclear fuel, for loading it into the reactor, start-up period, installation and construction works period and possible material damage.
  

The representatives of RANI during the Survey were:

Mr.S.Babenko, Technical director of RANI, the leader of the team

Mr.A. Nikitin, Deputy technical director of RANI, Inspector

Mr.V. Vashchilo, Deputy technical director of RANI, Inspector

The Survey was carried out in accordance with the current Guidelines of the international pooling system and the Guidelines of RANI adapted for the inspection of the icebreaker. The Survey was held in accordance with the program developed by JSC "SOGAZ", Baltic plant, taking into account the recommendations of RANI experts. The inspectors were provided with all necessary documents, information and were allowed to access the facilities at the site.

RANI inspectors highly appreciated the assistance and cooperation of the representatives of “Atomflot”, the management and the staff of the Baltic plant.

During the Survey the experts investigated equipment and systems, available areas of the icebreaker, workshops, and the territory of the Baltic plant. They considered design-and-engineering documents, administrative documents, conducted interviews with the management and specialists of the Baltic plant and representatives of "Atomflot", St. Petersburg.

A multipurpose nuclear turbo-electric icebreaker of project 22220 is expected to be the largest and the most powerful in the world, having a capacity of 60 MW, with a three-shaft propulsion system, aft propellers, with freeboard margin, three decks, two platforms, extended forecastle and a comprehensive eight-tiered superstructure. The design of the vessel allows it to be used both in Arctic waters and in estuaries of polar rivers.