The Ministry for the Development of the Russian Far East and Arctic and the state corporation Rosatom prepared a project of scheduled shipping along the North Sea Route (NSR) using the LASH carrier Sevmorput. According to the head of the Ministry for the Development of the Russian Far East and Arctic Aleksey Chekunkov, starting from 2022, the nuclear-powered LASH carrier is to perform three voyages per year with a return to the point of departure, TASS news agency reports.

'The Ministry for the Development of the Russian Far East and Arctic together with the state corporation Rosatom prepared a project of scheduled shipping along the NSR using the nuclear-powered LASH carrier Sevmorput. The project involves at least three round trips a year, starting from June 2022. We expect three voyages to be performed next year — in June, September and November,' said Chekunkov at the enlarged session of the Federation Council Committee on the Federal Structure, Regional Policy and Local Self-Government, where the preparation of the government hour on the topic 'On the strategy for the development of the Russian Arctic zone' was discussed.

Sevmorput is a single-deck nuclear-powered vessel. In December 2015, Sevmorput successfully passed sea trials, and in May 2016, the nuclear-powered container ship departed Murmansk on the voyage to Kotelny Island.

The North Sea Route is a shipping route and the main maritime communication route in the Russian Arctic. The route runs along the northern coast of Russia through the seas of the Arctic Ocean (Barents Sea, Kara Sea, Laptev Sea, East Siberian Sea, Chukchi Sea, and Bering Sea). The NSR links Russia's European and Far Eastern ports, as well as the mouths of navigable Siberian rivers, into a single transportation system. The length of the route is 5,600 km from the Kara Strait to Providence Bay.