Tag: icebreakers

China's 28th Antarctic expedition China's research vessel Xuelong, or Snow Dragon, is anchored at its base in east China's Shanghai Municipality, April 8, 2012. The research vessel has just returned to Shanghai from China's 28th Antarctic expedition. The crew travelled some 28,000 nautical miles in five months, with 47 tasks performed during the expedition.The vessel received a brief welcoming ceremony at the base dock, organized by the State Oceanic Administration and the Shanghai municipal government.It arrived at its designated anchorage area at the mouth of the Yangtze River on Thursday night.Xuelong, an A-2 class icebreaker capable of breaking ice 1.2 meters thick, left the port of Tianjin on Nov. 3, 2011, and had covered an estimated 28,000 nautical miles over the 163-day course.During the expedition, Xuelong delivered supplies to the country's Antarctic stations, and scientists aboard conducted various scientific research tasks, including polar environmental survey and the installation of an Antarctica survey telescope.Scientists also carried out large-scale oceanic researches, collecting about 8,500 samples and basic data from surveys on 46 Antarctic stations.Source: China.org.cn

Tory Plan Should Be Sunk, Senator Says At least $1.4 billion is expected to be carved out of spending at National Defence in the coming fiscal year, but a longtime critic says some politically-motivated programs should not survive Finance Minister Jim Flaherty's budget axe.The coming March 29 budget is expected to see $19.8 billion set aside for the military, a seven per cent decrease compared with last year's defence spending plan, according to preliminary federal estimates.And those forecasts do not reflect the five or 10 per cent reductions the Conservatives have asked all federal departments to deliver.Liberal Senator Colin Kenny, the former chair of the senate defence and security committee, said if the Harper government wants to make appropriate defence cuts it would look at its pet project of Arctic Offshore Patrol Ships.The $4.3 billion program was established to build between six and eight light naval icebreakers - slated to be the first military vessels constructed in Halifax under the recently announced national shipbuilding plan.Expected to be in the range of 6,000 tonnes each, the ships when completed around 2014-15 will operate in the Arctic for up to eight months a year."They're just a dumb idea," said Kenny. "They don't ...

Weeks of unusually cold weather in southern Russia have frozen the Azov Sea.

LK60-class will be the largest and most powerfull nuclear icebreake LK60-class will be the largest and most powerfull nuclear icebreaker ever built, making it possible for commercial traffic through the Northern Sea Route all year around. The construction starts at the end of this year.General Director of Rosatomflot, Vyacheslav Ruksha says to BarentsObserver.com that the expenses for a new icebreaker are already on Rosatomflots´s 2012 budget, with an estimated cost of 1.1 billion. The company plans to announce the tender for a new icebreaker this summer.In traffic 2018"If everything goes as planned we will sign a construction contract in September and hopefully the constructing of the ship can start by the end of 2012," says Ruksha and continues;"We believe the ship will be ready for traffic in the Northern Sea Route and other waters by 2018".Mikhail Belkin, assistant to the Director General of Rosatomflot, says that building a nuclear icebreaker is very complicated. Therefore they have to plan for a six year construction period of the new generation vessels."It is of course possible for us to use foreign as well as Russian ship yards for this work. We have previously done parts of the construction in Finnish ship yards with ...

HMS Protector, the Royal Navy's ice patrol ship HMS Protector, the Royal Navy's ice patrol ship, has cut through the ice floes of Antarctica for the first time.The ship arrived in Antarctica for the first time two weeks ago after her long sail south from Portsmouth and is following up important survey work for shipping in the region with visits to remote research bases locked in the frozen continent.At Deception Island, a stunning water-filled volcanic caldera that is one of just two in the world, Protector sent her smaller survey boat James Caird IV with multibeam echo sounder equipment to survey the area known as 'Neptune's Bellows'.It was here that in 2007 the cruise ship MV Nordkapp ran aground and was assisted by the previous ice patrol ship HMS Endurance.Leading Seaman Chris Smith, the boat's coxswain, said:"Working on the Neptune's Bellows survey was a highly satisfying job professionally; being part of a team that worked on something this important to the safety of navigation makes all the hard work of being away from my family worthwhile."A team of four spent two nights at an abandoned Admiralty base, braving gale-force winds with 55-knot (100km/h) gusts to both collect information used for ...

A Coast Guard icebreaker and Russian tanker Renda

The Coast Guard Cutter Healy escorts the Russian-flagged tanker Renda A Coast Guard icebreaker and Russian tanker loaded with fuel for delivery to an iced-in Alaska city have been stalled by Bering Sea ocean currents and thick ice.The vessels could move forward five or six miles on Tuesday, but the strong currents pushed them back by about the same amount, said Mark Smith, the CEO of Vitus Marine, the company supplying the fuel."There was a lot of stop and go activity," he said Wednesday morning.The tanker is loaded with 1.3 million gallons of fuel for Nome, a city of about 3,500 people that missed its final pre-winter delivery of fuel by barge when a big storm swept western Alaska in the fall.It was unclear whether conditions would allow the tanker and icebreaker to make significant progress on Wednesday. The tanker was reported to be fewer than 100 miles from Nome after it went 53 miles on Monday.The icebreaker is creating a path for the 370-foot tanker in ice that is up to 3 feet thick.If successful, the shipment would mark the first time petroleum products have been delivered by sea to a Western Alaska community in winter.Jason Evans, chairman of ...

The Yamal is one of Russia's biggest, most powerful icebreakers

Assisting and escorting the Renda The Coast Guard Cutter Healy breaks ice for the Russian-flagged tanker vessel Renda approximately 155 miles south of Nome, Alaska, Jan. 8, 2012.The 420-foot Seattle-based cutter Healy has been assisting and escorting the Renda, which is carrying more than 1.3 million gallons of fuel for the city of Nome. U.S. Coast Guard video by Petty Officer 3rd Class Jonathan Lally.BERING SEA - The tanker vessel Renda closely follows the Coast Guard Cutter Healy as it makes a path through the ice Jan. 8, 2012.The Healy and the Renda are approximately 155 miles south of Nome and are proceeding with caution to ensure the crews, vessels, and cargo arrive safely to Nome.U.S. Coast Guard photo by Seaman Benjamin Nocerini.BERING SEA - Crewmembers of the Coast Guard Cutter Healy observe the tanker vessel Renda as it follows their trail through the ice.The Healy and Renda are currently 150 miles south of Nome and are proceeding at approximately five knots. Sitnasuak Native Corporation of Nome signed a contract with Vitus Marine LLC to deliver 1.3 million gallons of petroleum products to Nome via Renda around the second week of January. If successful, this will mark the first time ...

Renda is carrying fuel to Nome, Alaska