News & Events
NPS 291 Submarine Transportation Project
16 October 2008
The November class submarine NPS 291 has been successfully transported from Shipyard 10 to Nerpa Shipyard in an operation joint-funded by UK and Norway (under the Global Partnership Programme) and using pontoons provided by UK Arctic Military Environmental Cooperation (AMEC). The submarine will be dismantled at Nerpa Shipyard.
In February 2008, contracts were signed between Nuvia Limited and Nerpa for a project to dismantle November Class NPS 291. This project is being equally funded by the UK and Norway as part of the Global Threat Reduction Programme. The UK is acting as Project Lead, managed by Nuvia and includes the Norwegian project manager RambØll-Storvik.
NPS 291 had been moored at Shipyard 10 since September 2006. The submarine was prepared for the removal of spent nuclear fuel earlier this year and the defuelling operations were successfully performed under contract between Nerpa and Atomflot, using the service vessel Imandra. Following defuelling, readiness works were carried out in advance of towing NPS 291 from Shipyard 10 to Nerpa.
The tow was completed during early October 2008 using tugs and four SPP-200 pontoons. The pontoons were designed by Lazurit and constructed by Nerpa, using funding provided by UK under the AMEC programme.
The pontoons were designed, manufactured and underwent factory testing under AMEC Project 1.8-2 Task 2 during the period 2006 to 2008 and the pontoons were made available for state testing in July 2008.
The contract for State Acceptance Testing (AMEC Project 1.8-2 Task 4) was signed in March 2008 between Nuvia Limited (the UK AMEC Programme Managers) and Terna SB (the Russian Federation (RF) Managing Agents).
Stage 1 of the State Acceptance Testing involved attaching and removing strops, and load testing of the pontoons using a three compartment unit from a dismantled Charlie Class nuclear powered submarine. These trials were completed successfully by personnel from Nerpa Shipyard, Institute 40, Central Design Bureau Lazurit and NF UPASR at Nerpa Shipyard during the week of 20th July 2008.
Stage 2 of the State Acceptance Testing involved the transportation of a defuelled November Class submarine from Shipyard 10 to Nerpa Shipyard. This was successfully carried out by personnel from Nerpa, Central Design Bureau Lazurit, Institute 40, NF UPASR, ZAO Masko and the RF Navy during mid October 2008.
Towing was performed under the design developed by St.Petersburg Sea Bureau of Engineering Malakhit.
Having completed their trials, the pontoons are now ready for use for the safe transportation of decommissioned nuclear powered submarines that are classed as being of poor condition and unsuitable for towing. The pontoons are designed for coastal water towing.
At Nerpa, NPS 291 will be transferred to the dismantling area, where the fore and aft sections will be removed. The reactor compartment will then be prepared as a single compartment unit that will be transferred by floating dock to the storage pad at Saida Bay during the first half of 2009.
The project involved the extensive efforts of many stakeholders from the Russian Federation, the UK and Norway, including the Department for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform (BERR), the Russian Federation Navy, Royal Navy, Russian Federation Environmental and Safety Department (UNEB), Nuvia Limited, the UK MoD Salvage and Marine Operations Integrated Project Team (S&MO IPT), NF UPASR, the Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MFA), the Norwegian Radiation Protection Authority (NRPA), RambØll-Storvik, SRY Nerpa, Main Branch of FSUE SC Zvyozdochka (Nerpa Shipyard), JSC Terna SB, Lazurit Central Design Bureau Open Joint Stock Co. (Lazurit), Central Design Bureau Malakhit and Institute 40. The efforts of all these organisations and others are gratefully acknowledged.
Further Information on the Arctic Military Environmental Cooperation:
AMEC was set up in 1996 by the US, Norway and Russia as a cooperative programme to address environmental issues in the Arctic left by the Cold War. The UK became a partner of AMEC on 27th June 2003. During 2006 the US and Norway declared their intention to withdraw as full members of AMEC and assume observer status. Since then, UK and the RF have continued working together within a bilateral AMEC. The basis of AMEC is to prevent pollution of the Arctic whilst promoting military-to-military cooperation. This is being achieved by provision of assistance with funding, technical expertise and training for implementation of projects.