Russia To Renovate Icebreaker Fleet

Russia will renovate its entire fleet of five nuclear-powered icebreakers plying the vital northern shipping route by 2003 by extending the lifespan of their nuclear reactors, the route's director said.

Anatoly Gorshkovsky said the administration of the northern route had been allocated funds to rehabilitate the ship's reactors, extending their service life by 25,000 hours each.

"All five ice-breakers are working now in good condition, and under a program we discussed with President-elect Putin in Murmansk earlier this month we decided to prolong the service life of each reactor to 175,000 hours from 150,000," he said. Work is expected to begin within a week.