China plans to build polar research icebreaker by itself, said a spokesman for national oceanographic department. Construction project of a new icebreaker has been officially adopted by National Development and Reform Commission, said the official. A tender for the name of icebreaker will be announced in Nov 2011.
According to concept design, length of the new icebreaker will be 100-120 meters, beam – 20-24 meters, maximum draft – 9 meters, displacement light – 8,000 tons, cruise range – 20,000 miles, crew – 90 men.
China started polar researches in 1984. Through 27 years, all expeditions have been carried out by three generations of icebreakers. At first, common ship Xiangyanghong 10 with full displacement of 13,000 tons was used for those purposes. Since 1986 China used research vessel Ji Di (stands for “Pole”) refitted from ice-resistant cargo ship bought from Finland. In 1994 her service life was expired. Presently, China uses icebreaker Xue Long (stands for “Snow Dragon”) purchased in 1993 from Ukraine.
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