The investment in the Arktika data centre (DC) at Kola NPP in the Murmansk Region will amount to about RUB 540 mn. This was announced to TASS by Sergey Migalin, Deputy Director General, Economy and Finance Director of Rosenergoatom (a part of the Electric power division of the Rosatom State Corporation), on the sidelines of the International Forum Kazan Digital Week.

He noted that the compact modular data centre will be placed directly inside the perimeter of Kola NPP. 'This data centre is simultaneously designed to provide commercial cloud solutions for Rosatom in the Murmansk Region and at the same time used for internal systems of Rosatom and Kola NPP itself,' said Sergey Migalin, noting that Rosatom is the operator of the North Sea Route, so there are tasks to accommodate certain Arctic traffic logistics management systems, ship management, weather management, mapping, separate Smart City/Region services, etc.

According to Sergey Migalin, sanctions and difficulties with logistics and equipment supply have not had much impact on the project's timetable.

In 2021, the construction of a data centre in the Polar Region was secured by an order of the Russian government, and Kola NPP itself was designated as a promising site for the development and location of the data centre. This decision is due to the low electricity tariff, the availability of reserve capacity and the climatic characteristics of the region—low air temperatures reduce data centre operating costs, as no sophisticated cooling systems are required, which reduces operating costs by almost 30%. The Arktika data centre is part of Rosatom's programme to create a geographically distributed, disaster-resistant network of data centres and infrastructure sites.