– What are your main tasks while exploring the Northern Sea Route?

– To build an ice road. And that’s where we face three subtasks. The first one is supply operation in the whole Arctic. The famous term “Severny Zavoz” (deliveries of goods to the Northern Territories) amounts to only 100 thousand tons of goods annually, which is not at all a problem for us…

The second is that these days the development of the Yamal hydrocarbon deposits, both of gas and oil, is going full pace. The “Yamal-SPG” project is our main hope. As I believe, this project is underestimated, for the key factor for the transport system is building of the “Sabbeta” deep-water port. The third is through traffic development. What we can easily do is to activate transit pilotage of vessels during the period of summer-autumn navigation. This is an international project, covering North-West Europe, Japan, South Korea, China. As a matter of fact, the income having come from transit pilotage in 2012 is the highest – RUB 300 million. So this field proves quite fruitful.

– We cannot really compete with the Suez Canal, but can the NSR possibly boast any advantages?

– That is correct. In 2012 they transported 700 million tons of cargo over the Suez Canal, while our amount is only 1,26 million. That’s incomparable, of course. However our route is quite promising for hydrocarbon crude, for instance. The Northern Sea Route is appropriate for mass cargo in between the ports of North-Western Europe, South Korea and China, for transporting raw naphtha, liquefied gas, iron-ore condensate. We are expecting some development of the projects in the Yamal peninsula region. The expert assessments are optimistic: The “Yamal-SPG” project itself promises 15 million tons of cargo by 2020. It is expected that the oilers will add about 15-30 tons. The long time prospective looks exciting: if everything goes right, we will have about 70 million tons of cargo by 2025-2030.

– What are the deadlines for the new LK-60A icebreakers?

– The first one is expected to be put into operation in December 2017, the second – in 2019, the third one in 2021. The main stage of a vessel building, which is laying down of the first section, is scheduled for this coming November. That’s when we will start seeing if our deadlines are going to work. What is important is that the Baltic Shipyard and OKBM Afrikantov sign the contract for the supply of the new project RITM-200 reactor plants. We highly appreciate the decisions of the Russian Governments about building atomic icebreakers. This is the future of our enterprise. We are aware that these decisions were supported by Rosatom.

– How many people are currently involved at the enterprise?

– 2070. The midterm program is approved, that means that these people will retain their jobs for 4 years. We will operate 4 nuclear icebreakers: “Yamal”, “Taimyr”, “Vaigach” and the biggest one in the world, “The 50 Years of Victory”. We appreciate Rosatom’s attention – in order to sustain the good condition of the vessels (the resource prolongation of nuclear steam-generating plants), especially for “Taimyr” and “Vaigach”, the State Corporation spares us RUB 69 million.

– Rosatom has started the globalization program. What do you think about the project?

– I believe the project to be not only good, but also necessary, since no grand corporation can do without globalization. The job of spreading our technologies all over the world is a very good idea. I hope this time it will turn out more effective than how it was with the proletarian world revolution.

– One of the activities of Atomflot are tourists cruises to the North Pole. A journey costing $20 thousand is super expensive. Are there many clients?

– There is a demand, since the offer is somewhat unique: there is a single icebreaker doing it, which is “The 50 Years of Victory”. The season is very short, July and the beginning of August, that’s why there are only 4 voyages, each for 120 tourists. That means that only 480 people a year can have an unbelievable opportunity to admire the nature of the Arctic, which is something special this time of the year. Besides the North Pole the icebreaker also makes a stop at Frantz Josef Land. Lest we forget, the daily maintenance of a nuclear vessel is very expensive. What we offer is a unique ten days journey with the colors one never would be able to see anywhere else. Once you’ve been there, you’ll never forget.