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Russia to complete building Arktika icebreaker in 2020

The investments in the icebreaker's construction will total $572 million

MOSCOW, April 26. /TASS/. The construction of the Arktika universal nuclear-powered lead icebreaker will be completed in 2020, according to a government resolution posted on the government’s legal information web portal on Friday.

The government resolution’s previous version indicated that the icebreaker would be built in 2019. The investment in the Arktika icebreaker project has remained unchanged at about 37 billion rubles ($572 million).

Russia plans to build the serial-produced nuclear-powered icebreaker Sibir by 2021 and the icebreaker Ural by 2022. The investments in the icebreakers’ construction will total about 41 billion rubles ($634 million) and 42 billion rubles ($649 million), respectively, the document says.

Three Project 22220 universal nuclear-powered icebreakers Arktika, Sibir and Ural are currently under construction at the Baltiysky Shipyard. The icebreakers will operate new-generation nuclear reactors. Overall, the concept of the nuclear-powered icebreaker fleet development worked out by Russia’s civilian nuclear power corporation Rosatom envisages building five Project 22220 serial-produced icebreakers. The fourth serial-produced icebreaker will go into operation in 2024 and the fifth in 2027.