Tag: icebreakers

Ice Breakers

Ice Breakers

Aker Arctic has been contracted to carry out a conceptual and basic design Aker Arctic has been contracted to carry out a conceptual and basic design exercise for a new icebreaking research vessel to be used by various Chinese bodies for the purpose of polar scientific research.The icebreaker will be designed to accommodate a total of 90 persons and will have a length oa of about 120ms, a maximum breadth of 22.3m and draught of 8.5m. The vessel will have the ability to break through 1.5m of level ice at 2 to 3 knots speed, including multi-year ice. It will be equipped with twin azimuthing propeller drives. It will have dual classification from China Classification Society and Lloyds Register of Shipping to ice class PC3.The design is expected to take seven months for the Finnish specialist design company to realise, after which the design package will be passed to a design company or yard, for detailed design and workshop drawings to be completed.The design is being produced on behalf of the Chinese State Oceanic Administration, Chinese Arctic and Antarctic Administration and the Polar Research Institute of China, and the contract is worth over 5 million. The new vessel will be ...

Russia plans largest icebreaker

Scrapping Polar Sea would leave the United States with only one operational icebreaker U.S. Senators Maria Cantwell (D-WA), Mark Begich (D-AK) and Lisa Murkowski (R-AK) announced an agreement with the U.S. Coast Guard to postpone the scheduled scrapping of the Polar Sea through the end of 2012. The agreement was reached during a meeting Thursday between the Senators and the Commandant of the U.S. Coast Guard, Admiral Robert Papp, Jr.The icebreaker, based in Seattle, had been scheduled to be dry-docked and taken apart beginning Monday. This process would have ripped out the vessel's hubs and sealed off major portions of the vessel - a key step toward final destruction of the icebreaker.Scrapping Polar Sea would leave the United States with only one operational icebreaker, the Healy, which was designed primarily as a scientific research vessel and only has medium icebreaking capability. The second heavy duty icebreaker, Polar Star, is currently in Seattle being refitted after years of receiving routine maintenance in 'caretaker' status.The Coast Guard needs a minimum of six heavy duty icebreakers and an additional four medium icebreakers to meet Coast Guard and Navy mission requirements, according to a recent Coast Guard study. The United States Navy has no ...

Cruise traffic to the North Pole "50 years of Victory" will take tourists to the top of the world five times this summer, starting from June 26. Each trip takes ten days and costs 800 000 rubles (19 800).Cruise traffic to the North Pole is very lucrative for Atomflot, says General Director Vyacheslav Ruksha: "It provides us with 70-80 days of work. The contract we had with Rosmorport on work in the Baltic was for 100 days, so the cruise work is just as good", RIA Novosti cites.The number of cruise trips to the North Pole will probably go down in the coming years as the traffic on the Northern Sea Route increases and more and more of Russia's old nuclear-powered icebreakers are taken out of service.Russia plans to start construction of the largest and most powerful nuclear icebreaker ever built by the end of the year. This will make it possible for commercial traffic through the Northern Sea Route all year around. The LK60 icebreakers will have the overall power of 60 MW with variable draught from 8.5 m to 10.8 m. It will replace one icebreaker of the Arktika class and one icebreaker of Taimyr class.Russian icebreakers have ...

Shell is the first major international oil company to make drilling in the region Greenpeace Nordic activists intercepted at open sea and boarded a Shell-contracted icebreaker, the Nordica, to continue its protest against the oil major's destructive plans to start drilling in the pristine Arctic region. At about 04:20 six activists from five different countries boarded the Nordica in Swedish waters south of Öland, scaled the ship and have locked themselves down throughout the ship. They are demanding that Shell abandons its controversial plans to drill in the fragile Arctic."Shell's reckless plans to start drilling for oil in the Arctic pose an unacceptable threat to a unique place on earth," said Greenpeace Nordic Arctic campaigner eco-toxicologist Therese Jacobson. "We are standing at a crossroads. A choice needs to be made to protect the Arctic or allow Shell and other oil greedy companies to destroy this precious region. The choice is clear, we must save the Arctic."Today's interception follows a similar action earlier this week when 20 Greenpeace Nordic activists boarded the Nordica in Helsinki, Finland, as it prepared to leave to join Shell's fleet of vessels in Alaska this summer. As the first team of activists was being arrested, 22 ...

Ckech for offshore permafrost regions and the sea-floor for gas hydrate reserves Korea's first icebreaker will explore Canada's Arctic Ocean to check offshore permafrost regions and the sea-floor for gas hydrate reserves, the government said Tuesday.The Ministry of Land, Transport and Maritime Affairs said it reached an understanding with Canada to conduct joint research in the Beaufort Sea within the North American country's exclusive economic zone (EEZ).The sea is a marginal body of water in the Arctic Ocean that lies north of the Northwest Territories and west of Canada's Arctic Islands.The Araon, a 7,487-ton icebreaker, will check the region for gas hydrates found deep at sea or in offshore permafrost layers. It will also examine the effects of the release of methane gas on the environment.Gas hydrates are a semisolid mixture of methane gas and water molecules created through a combination of water pressure and cold temperatures."Exact details have to be worked out with Canada, but the Araon should begin exploration in the summer of 2013," a official said. Past studies indicated the Arctic Ocean area may hold 25 percent of the world's untapped crude oil and natural gas deposits.The official said by South Korea taking part in the joint ...

National Geographic video

To begin polar research operations in 2014 China says it plans for a new icebreaker, now in the design stage, to be ready to begin polar research operations in 2014.The home-produced vessel will team up with the Xue Long -- Snow Dragon -- currently China's only icebreaker, which was purchased from the Ukraine in 1993.The Xue Long recently returned to its base in Shanghai after completing its 28th expedition to the Antarctic, officials from the Polar Research Institute of China said.The new vessel would be designed by China in consultation with other countries with greater experience in icebreakers and built in China, institute officials said."It will be a real icebreaker, since Xue Long was a transport ship converted for polar work," Weng Lixin told the Shanghai Daily."The new icebreaker will be equipped with the most advanced appliances for marine, polar and astronomical research," Weng said.Chile navy rescues four from Antarctic shipSantiago (AFP) April 9, 2012 - Four Brazilians filming a documentary off the Antarctic coast were rescued by the Chilean navy after their ship became stuck in the ice, Chilean media said Monday.Officials told the daily El Mercurio that the four Brazilians were safe and sound after their vessel Mar ...