Three reactors on board

Nuclear submarines as LNG gas tankers: a good idea?

Russia wants to transport liquefied gas from Siberia to Asia using nuclear-powered mega-submarines. Experts are skeptical about the project.

(Bild: Konstruktionsbüro Malachit)

Isolated from Western customers, Russia has had to sell more of its natural resources to customers in Asia since Putin's invasion of Ukraine. However, the infrastructure is not designed for this and most gas pipelines run to the west. An audacious plan now envisages using large nuclear submarines to transport gas under the Arctic pack ice to China. 

The plan is being promoted at the highest level. Mikhail Kovalchuk, Director of the Kurchatov Nuclear Research Institute and a close confidant of Russian President Vladimir Putin, presented the plan as a reaction to the shortage of gas tankers, which is slowing down Russia's raw materials business with Asian customers and is the result of Western sanctions. Moscow has high hopes for an LNG gas terminal in the Arctic, but does not have enough tankers to transport the gas to Asia - especially as the northern route is often only navigable with icebreaker support in winter and requires more ships than other routes. At an industry conference in St. Petersburg, Kovalchuk presented a new class of nuclear-powered submarines as a solution. Experts on the Russian submarine fleet are concerned.