On 20 December, the keel of the multipurpose nuclear-powered service ship Vladimir Vorobyov (Project 22770) was laid at the Baltic Shipyard in St. Petersburg, Russia.
The vessel will facilitate the refueling of nuclear reactors on board the Project 22220 nuclear icebreakers, and in the future, the world’s most powerful icebreaker, Rossiya. The multipurpose nuclear-powered service ship is equipped to load fresh nuclear fuel onto the icebreakers and unload and store spent fuel until it can be transported for reprocessing.
Andrey Buzinov, First Deputy CEO of United Shipbuilding Corporation; Yakov Antonov, acting CEO of Atomflot; Alexander Ryzhkov, Executive Director of Iceberg Central Design Bureau; and others attended the keel-laying ceremony.
The privilege of affixing the keel to the ship’s hull was bestowed upon Andrey Buzinov, Yakov Antonov, Alexander Ryzhkov and Alexander Konovalov. After that, Alexander Konovalov, Yakov Antonov, and Oleg Yashenkin, Director of the Nuclear-Powered Vessels branch of the Russian Maritime Register of Shipping signed the keel-laying certificate.
The long-established tradition is to christen nuclear-powered icebreakers as well as other vessels of Atomflot with geographical names along the Northern Sea Route or to give them the names of legendary Soviet nuclear-powered ships. However, when it came to the multipurpose nuclear-powered service ship, the company decided to break away from the tradition. The proposal to perpetuate the memory of Vladimir Vorobyov had been put forward by Rosatom, Baltic Shipyard, and several design institutes.
“The contributions of Vladimir Vorobyov to the development of the nuclear icebreaker fleet are inestimable”, stated Yakov Antonov. “He oversaw the construction of the lead universal nuclear icebreaker Arktika and other Project 22220 nuclear-powered icebreakers, and also was one of the designers of Project 10510 lead nuclear-powered vessel Rossiya. It is remarkable that a vessel designed to ensure the safe operation of modern nuclear icebreakers is named after the chief designer. The multipurpose nuclear-powered service ship will carry out a full range of operations to refuel the reactors on board the multipurpose nuclear icebreakers and the lead icebreaker Rossiya”.
