One of the engines of the Arctic icebreaker under construction is recognized as not subject to restoration after breakdown

Kommersant found out the details of the breakdown of one of the engines of the Arctic head atomic icebreaker under construction, which happened during mooring tests on February 4. According to the newspaper, one of the rowing electric motors of the vessel is recognized as not subject to restoration.

There are three rowing shafts on the icebreaker "Arctic", two engines of 10 MW are installed on each. One of them came out of the system. Presumably, the breakdown occurred either due to marriage in the manufacture of the engine, or due to a jump in the voltage from the frequency converter on the electric motor. The reasons for the breakdown and recommendations for the restoration of the engine should be determined by the Baltzor commission by February 20.

If the engine cannot be repaired on board, the icebreaker will have to be placed in the dock, which will lead to a significant delay in the ship’s delivery of the vessel. To avoid this, the “Rosatom” can accept the “Arctic” with a faulty engine under the obligations of the shipyard to carry out repairs, writes the publication. Then the capacity of the icebreaker will temporarily decrease by a third, to 40 MW. The head of the United Shipbuilding Corporation (OSK) Alexei Rakhmanov said that he had not yet seen the risks of transferring the deadlines for delivery.

If the cause of the voltage was the reason for the incident, this calls for the correct design of the systems, the source of Kommersant noted in the industry. Voltage surges regularly occur during operation, especially in severe Arctic conditions, and frequency converters and fuses are placed for their compensation. Another interlocutor of the publication emphasized that the fuses did not save the engine from the breakdown.

Finally, they have not yet refused to restore the engine from the idea of ​​restoring the engine without cutting the case, additional experts were specially connected for this. However, if damage to the four phases of six is ​​very significant, you will have to change the entire engine, and the creation of a new one can take 12-18 months. Perhaps a legal compromise will be found, and the icebreaker will be taken under the obligation to eliminate the malfunction in the future. Now on the icebreaker, despite the breakdown, the testing program continues.

The contract for the construction of the Arctic head atomic icebreaker costing 37 billion rubles was concluded in 2012. The ship was planned to be passed at the end of 2017, but the deadlines were postponed by Decree of the President of the Russian Federation Vladimir Putin to May 2019. Then the date moved by another year: it was expected that the icebreaker would be handed over after ice tests in May 2020. In addition to the "Arctic", the Baltzavod must build four more serial icebreakers LK-60.