More Than Science At Risk As US Icebreakers Age - American Geophysical Union

[hatrack]

With only two operational icebreakers, and one of those near the end of its lifespan,
the U.S. National Science Foundation has developed contingency plans to ensure
access to the polar regions for science. However, the U.S. government may need to
acquire new icebreakers if the nation requires access for other purposes in addition to science,
such as commerce and national security, according to a recent report from a
committee of the U.S. National Research Council (NRC).

Hajo Eicken, from the Geophysical Institute of the University of Alaska Fairbanks
and a member of the NRC committee, said that as polar ice conditions and temperatures
become more “benign,” “industry, law enforcement, and various other activities
are actually going to move into these areas.” However, he said that because of the nature
of geography and ice circulation, there will be “more critical situations that require support
by heavy polar-class icebreakers.”

The U.S. Coast Guard operates the U.S. government’s only icebreakers: the heavy-icebreaking, polar-class Polar Sea and Polar Star, and the Healy, which has only light icebreaking capability. The Polar Star, in need of renovation, currently sits in caretaker status with only a skeleton crew, leaving only two U.S. ships for providing access to McMurdo Station in Antarctica and ferrying scientists and their experiments at both ends of the Earth. These ships have a lifespan of only about
30 years due to the stress caused by icebreaking. One polar-class ship already is 30
years old, and the other is 28. James Swift, an oceanographer at the Scripps Institution of
Oceanography in La Jolla, Calif., and a member of the NRC committee, said that eventually
“band-aids will not work any more.” Even if these ships receive required renovations, at
the potential cost of hundreds of millions of dollars, “you still have an old ship,” he said.

EDIT

NSF cannot wait that long for new ships, however, and the agency already has developed
and instituted contingency plans. Karl Erb, director of the U.S. National Science
Foundation (NSF) Office of Polar Programs, said that unusually thick ice around McMurdo
Station recently has required the use of two icebreakers to ensure access to deliver fuel,
supplies, and personnel. During the last two years, NSF used a Russian ship along with
one U.S. polar-class icebreaker; this year, NSF has contracted with the Swedish ship
Oden. NSF also has requested funds to increase fuel storage capacity at McMurdo so that a
year of fuel delivery could be skipped, although operations would have to be cut
back that year, Erb said. Later this month, NSF will release a request for information to
gauge the private sector’s interest in providing ships for the yearly McMurdo resupply.

EDIT

No link: subscription service.