Rosatom manufactures first nuclear fuel batch for new Russian icebreakers
© RIA Novosti. Grigoriy Sisoev

Rosatom manufactures first nuclear fuel batch for new Russian icebreakers

The machine-building plant of Rosatom's TVEL nuclear fuel company has manufactured the first batch of nuclear fuel for the new Project 22220 multirole Russian icebreakers, RIA Novosti reports, quoting the corporate press service.

The new fuel's properties make it possible to extend the service life of the future icebreakers' reactor cores by 100 percent.

The fuel was developed using a production process from the Academician Bochvar High-Technology Scientific Research Institute for Inorganic Materials (VNIINM). The institute's experts have contributed the heat-producing element's production process, materials and design, as well as the nuclear burnup absorber's rod and a neutron initiator for the icebreakers' reactor cores.

Two new Project 22220 multirole nuclear icebreakers featuring RITM-200 reactor units are under construction at the Baltic Shipyard in St. Petersburg. The lead ship, the Arktika, due to enter service in 2017, will be followed by the Sibir. And the Ural, the third ship in the series, will be laid down in 2016.