A new report from the Bellona Foundation concludes that the Russian nuclear industry is pushing for the use of nuclear technology on the shelf. The report named “From Polar to Nuclear? ‘Nuclearification’ of the Russian offshore oil and gas industry” was presented at a recent hearing in the European Parliament, Bellona.org reports.
Author Vladislav Larin writes that Russian research centres are working on designs to apply nuclear energy in developing oil and gas fields in the Russian Arctic.
The Arctic plans of the Russian nuclear industry are not all new, however.
According to Bellona, the collapse of the Soviet Union and subsequent economic crisis forced the nuclear industry to go alternative. In the transition period which followed the collapse, some two hundred nuclear-powered vessels were pulled out of service. Russia and the Russian army were in desperate need of cash. In those turbulent times, the idea of converting nuclear powered submarines into cargo vessels to ship goods under the Arctic ice was hatched, report author Larin writes.
In August 1995 the Russian Northern Fleet removed torpedoes from one of its attack Victor-III class submarines and sent it on an entirely peaceful mission to deliver potatoes and other cargo to a port on Yamal Peninsula in the Arctic. The trip was a showcase that submarines could be used as underwater transports. The experiment proved, however, not to be economically viable.
Later attempts to reconstruct Typhoons for the purpose of shipping ore from Norilsk nickel plant in the western Siberia ended in vain as well.
Read the report here
