Russia develops nuclear submarine to carry natural gas to Asia

Nga phát triển tàu ngầm hạt nhân chở khí tự nhiên sang châu Á- Ảnh 1. — Russian RITM-200 nuclear reactors expected to be used on new submarines

Reuters on October 16 quoted a senior Russian official as saying that the country is designing nuclear-powered submarines to export liquefied natural gas (LNG) from the Arctic Ocean to Asia, nearly halving the shipping time along the Northern Sea Route (NSR).

Russia is currently using nuclear-powered icebreakers to pave the way for this shipping through the NSR, a route that runs along Russia's Arctic Ocean coast from Murmansk in the west to the Bering Strait in the east, which Moscow sees as a faster alternative to the Suez Canal.

However, Russia is suffering from a shortage of ships capable of dealing with thick ice in icy waters, an obstacle to its new Arctic LNG 2 project.

The Arctic LNG 2 facility began producing LNG at sea in December 2023. Although the first shipments of super-chilled gas were shipped in early August, they have yet to be delivered to the final buyer.

Mikhail Kovalchuk, a close ally of President Vladimir Putin and director of the Kurchatov Institute, Russia's top nuclear research facility, presented the submarine project at an industry conference in St. Petersburg last week.

“The aim of this project is to create a completely new type of vessel capable of replacing traditional gas tankers, which cannot move year-round without icebreaker escort in Arctic conditions,” according to the Offshore Marintec Russia 2024 website .

Accordingly, the idea of building a nuclear-powered gas-carrying submarine has been discussed since the early 2000s and now the Kurchatov Institute and Gazprom Group have begun designing it.

The idea is to shorten the travel time on the NSR from 20 days to 12 days, and the nuclear submarine can carry about 180,000 tons of LNG, equivalent to a conventional Arc 7 gas carrier, RBC news site said.

The new nuclear submarine is expected to be 360 meters long and no more than 70 meters wide, powered by the RITM-200 nuclear reactors that Russia uses for its latest icebreakers.

Source: https://thanhnien.vn/nga-phat-trien-tau-ngam-hat-nhan-cho-khi-tu-nhien-sang-chau-a-185241016203840741.htm