Nuclear icebreaker "Lenin" part 1: exterior views. Icebreakers - the force that crushes ice How does a nuclear icebreaker work?

Just a few years ago, the Baltic Shipyard in St. Petersburg was experiencing serious difficulties and was on the verge of shutdown, and this summer the hull of the newest nuclear icebreaker “Arktika” - the namesake of the retired famous Soviet ship - was launched from the plant's stocks. This newest vessel with a two-reactor nuclear installation is designed with a double-draft design, that is, it will be able to escort transport vessels in both deep- and shallow-water sections of the Northern Sea Route. However, in addition to nuclear leviathans like the Arktika and its upcoming sisterships Sibir and Ural, not so powerful ships of more modest size are also in demand in our high latitudes. These icebreakers also have their own tasks.

The icebreaker is cramped

The phrase “modest size” is the last thing that comes to mind in the workshop of the Vyborg Shipyard, where the installation of blocks of the future icebreaker is taking place. Huge ocher-colored structures, the height of a three- to four-story building, reach right up to the ceiling of the dimly lit factory room. From time to time, here and there, a bluish welding flame flares up. VSZ's new products do not really fit into the old dimensions of the enterprise. “We had to redo the entire logistics chain of production,” says Valery Shorin, an honored employee of the enterprise, a senior specialist in business projects at VSZ. — Previously, ship hulls were assembled on a slipway, and then they entered a docking chamber, which was filled with water. The water sank, leaving the ship in a special channel through which access to the sea opened. Now this is impossible. The chamber is capable of receiving vessels no wider than 18 m.”

Construction of a multifunctional icebreaking support vessel for escorting oil tankers in the Gulf of Ob is underway.

Now at VSZ they are finishing the construction of the diesel-electric icebreaker “Novorossiysk”, belonging to the 21900 M series. Two sister ships - “Vladivostok” and “Murmansk” have already been transferred to the customer, which is “Rosmorport”. These, of course, are not superpowers like the “Arctic” (60 MW), but the power capacity of Project 21900 M ships is also impressive - 18 MW. The length of the icebreaker is 119.4 m, width is 27.5. The docking camera is still in place. Its gray concrete walls, in the seams of which small vegetation has settled, now hospitably accept a factory tug and other not too large vessels for repairs. The icebreaker will no longer fit there. Instead of building a second, wider chamber, the plant found a different solution. In ten months, the Atlant barge was built, an impressive structure with a length of 135 and a width of 35 m. The barge is a floating platform, at the corners of which white technological towers rise - they have markings on them. Now the finished blocks are delivered to the barge from the workshop on heavy-duty trailers (the largest of them is capable of transporting parts weighing up to 300 tons). The hull is being assembled on the Atlanta, and as soon as it is ready for launching, the barge is taken by tug to a deep place in the sea and its ballast chambers are filled with water. The site goes under water, and the depth of its immersion is monitored precisely by the marks on the technological towers. The future ship is afloat. He is taken to the pier, after which work continues. The barge is freed for a new ship.

The icebreaker Novorossiysk, which has already been launched, is the last of three icebreakers of Project 21900 M ordered by Rosmorport.

Raid against the ice

What makes an icebreaker an icebreaker? In principle, any vessel can break ice, even a rowing boat. The only question is how thick this ice is. The Maritime Register has a classification of ships that have special properties for crossing ice. The weakest category is Ice 1−3 (non-Arctic vessels), followed by Arc 6−9 (Arctic vessels). But only ships falling under the Icebreaker category can rightfully be considered icebreakers. There are four classes in the category. The highest class - the ninth - belongs to nuclear icebreakers, which are capable of continuously crossing a field of flat ice up to 2.5 m thick. What if the ice is thicker? This may well happen in the permanently frozen Arctic seas, where the ice does not melt in the spring, but grows over the years. Hummocks also complicate the passage. In this case, you have to abandon breaking the ice continuously. If the icebreaker does not have enough power to overcome the ice, the “raid” technique is used. The ship moves away from the obstacle several hulls back, and then again rushes forward and jumps onto the ice floe with a running start. There is also a method of breaking ice by the stern, where ballast water is pumped from other parts of the hull to increase the mass acting on the ice. The opposite option is also possible, when water is pumped to the bow of the vessel. Or into a tank on one of the sides. This is the work of the roll and trim systems, which help the icebreaker break the ice and not get stuck in the channel. The fourth method is available only to the unique, first-in-the-world asymmetrical icebreaker Baltika, which, due to the non-standard shape of the hull, can move sideways, breaking the ice and forming a channel of such a width that other icebreakers are inaccessible.

Two icebreakers - "Moscow" and "St. Petersburg", built at the Baltic Shipyard (St. Petersburg) within the framework of Project 21900, belonged to the Icebreaker 6 class. The modernized icebreakers of Project 21900 M, the production of which was mastered by VSZ, were strengthened and modified to the Icebreaker class 7. When moving continuously, they are capable of breaking ice with a thickness of 1.5-1.6 m, and when using the stern, they can handle a thickness of 1.3 m. This means that the Novorossiysk, which is currently being completed, will be able to work not only in the Baltic, where the thickness ice almost never exceeds 90 cm, but also in the Arctic seas - however, mainly in the spring-summer period.

It is from these huge blocks that icebreaker hulls are assembled on the Atlant barge at the Vyborg Shipyard, part of the United Shipbuilding Corporation. As soon as the hull is ready, it is launched into the water, and the completion of the vessel continues.

Pitching on clear water

Despite the fact that the icebreakers of Project 21900 M do not have the capabilities that the Icebreaker 9 class vessels have, structurally they have many similarities, since the classic icebreaker design has long been invented and tested. “The icebreaker’s hull is shaped like an egg. - says Boris Kondrashov, captain of the VSZ tugboat, deputy captain of the plant. — There are almost no protruding parts on the bottom. This shape makes it possible to effectively push away the ice broken by the reinforced stem and to move the ice floes downwards, under the ice framing the channel. But one feature of icebreakers is associated with this shape: in clear water, the ship experiences powerful rolling even from a small wave. At the same time, when passing through ice fields, the ship’s hull occupies a stable position.” The ice field along which the icebreaker is moving does not stand still. Under the influence of current or wind, it can move and push against the side of the icebreaker. It is extremely difficult to resist the pressure of a huge mass; it is impossible to stop it. There are cases when ice literally crawled onto the deck of an icebreaker. But the shape of the hull and the reinforced ice belt running near the waterline do not allow ice to crush the ship, although large dents up to half a meter deep often remain on the sides.

1. In normal mode, the icebreaker breaks ice, moving continuously. The vessel cuts through the ice with a reinforced stem and pushes the ice floes apart with its specially rounded bow. 2. If the icebreaker encounters ice that the ship does not have enough power to break with continuous movement, the raid method is used. The icebreaker moves back, then runs onto the ice floe and crushes it with its weight. 3. Another option for dealing with thick ice is moving astern.

The changes made to the modified version of the icebreaker 21900 affected, in particular, the ice belt. It is reinforced with an additional 5 mm layer of stainless steel. Other components have also undergone modifications. Unlike classic ships with propellers, Project 21900 M icebreakers are equipped with two rudder propellers. These are not newfangled azipods, each of which houses an electric motor in the gondola, but their functional analogue. The columns can be rotated 180 degrees in any direction, which provides the vessel with the highest maneuverability. In addition to the columns located at the stern, at the bow of the ship there is a thruster in the form of a propeller in a ring fairing. What is especially interesting is that the propellers not only act as propulsion, but also have sufficient strength to take part in the fight against ice. When working astern, the propeller propellers crush the ice; the thruster is also capable of milling ice. By the way, it also has one more function - to pump out water from under the ice that the ship is attacking. Having momentarily lost support in the form of the water column, the ice breaks more easily under the weight of the nose.

New products for the Gulf of Ob

What will happen if an icebreaker of type 21900 M hits an iceberg similar to the one that destroyed the Titanic? “The ship will be damaged, but will remain afloat,” says Valery Shorin. “However, these days such a situation is unlikely. Even the Titanic disaster was a manifestation of negligence - the presence of icebergs in the disaster area was known, but the captain did not slow down. Now the ocean surface is constantly monitored from space, and this data is available in real time. In addition, there is a helipad in the bow of the 21900 M icebreakers. Taking off from it, the ship’s helicopter can regularly conduct ice reconnaissance and determine the optimal route.” But maybe it's time to replace heavy and expensive helicopters with lightweight drones? “We do not exclude the use of drones on board an icebreaker in the future,” explains Valery Shorin, “but we do not intend to abandon the helicopter yet. After all, in a critical situation it can act as a life-saving device.”

Multifunctionality is the slogan of our time. Icebreakers produced by VSZ are capable of not only laying channels in the ice, allowing the passage of transport ships, but also participating in emergency rescue operations, performing various types of work in places of offshore hydrocarbon production, laying pipes, and extinguishing fires. Such versatility is now especially in demand in areas of active economic development of the Arctic. While the Novorossiysk, the last icebreaker of the 21900 M series, is being completed at the berth, the hull of a multifunctional icebreaking support vessel for work in the Novoportovskoye oil field in the west of the Gulf of Ob is being assembled on the Atlant barge. There will be two such ships, both exceed the power of the 21900 M project (22 MW versus 16) and belong to the Icebreaker 8 class, that is, they will be able to break ice up to 2 m thick in a continuous motion and lead oil tankers. Icebreaking vessels are designed to operate at temperatures down to -50°C, meaning they will withstand the harshest Arctic conditions. The ships will be able to perform many functions, including placing a medical hospital on board.

There, on the Gulf of Ob, a large international project for the production of liquefied natural gas, Yamal LNG, is being implemented. Tankers with “blue fuel” will be intended primarily for European consumers. These ice-class tankers are being built at shipyards in Japan and South Korea, but Russian-made icebreaking ships will have to navigate them through the ice. The contract for the construction of two icebreakers for Yamal-LNG has already been signed by the Vyborg Shipyard.

To complete the picture of modern Russian icebreaker building, it is worth mentioning another new product expected soon - the world’s most powerful non-nuclear icebreaker. The Viktor Chernomyrdin vessel, which is being built at the Baltic Shipyard on behalf of Rosmorport, will have a power of 25 MW and will be able to break ice up to two meters thick by moving continuously backwards or forwards.

At its core, a nuclear icebreaker is a steamship. The nuclear reactor heats water, which turns into steam, which spins turbines, which excite generators, which generate electricity, which goes to electric motors that turn 3 propellers.

The thickness of the hull in places where the ice breaks is 5 centimeters, but the strength of the hull is given not so much by the thickness of the plating as by the number and location of the frames. The icebreaker has a double bottom, so if there is a hole, water will not flow into the ship.

The nuclear icebreaker "50 Years of Victory" has 2 nuclear reactors with a capacity of 170 Megawatts each. The power of these two installations is enough to supply electricity to a city with a population of 2 million people.

Nuclear reactors are reliably protected from accidents and external shocks. The icebreaker can withstand a direct hit into the reactor of a passenger aircraft or a collision with the same icebreaker at speeds of up to 10 km/h.

Reactors are filled with new fuel every 5 years!

We were given a short tour of the icebreaker's engine room, photographs of which are below the cut. Plus, I’ll show you where we ate, what we ate, how we rested and the rest of the interior of the icebreaker...

The tour began in the chief engineer's office. He briefly talked about the structure of the icebreaker and where we would go during the excursion. Since the group was mostly foreigners, everything was translated first into English and then into Japanese:

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2 turbines, each of which simultaneously rotates 3 generators, producing alternating current. In the background the yellow boxes are rectifiers. Since rowing electric motors operate on direct current, it must be rectified:

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Rectifiers:

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Electric motors turning propellers. This place is very noisy and is located 9 meters below the waterline. The total draft of the icebreaker is 11 meters:

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The steering gear looks very impressive. On the bridge, the helmsman turns a small steering wheel with his finger, and here huge pistons rotate the steering wheel behind the stern:

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And this is the upper part of the steering wheel. He himself is in the water. An icebreaker is much more maneuverable than conventional ships:

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Desalination plants:

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They produce 120 tons of fresh water per day:

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You can taste the water directly from the desalination plant. I drank regular distilled water:

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Auxiliary boilers:

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The ship has many degrees of protection against emergency situations. One of them is extinguishing fires with carbon dioxide:

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Purely in Russian - oil is dripping from under the gasket. Instead of replacing the gasket, they simply hung the jar. Believe it or not, it’s the same at my house. My heated towel rail leaked in the same way, so I still haven’t replaced it, but just empty a bucket of water once a week:

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Wheelhouse:

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The icebreaker is operated by 3 people. The watch lasts 4 hours, that is, each shift carries a watch, for example, from 4 pm to 8 pm and from 4 am to 8 am, the next from 8 pm to midnight and from 8 am to noon, etc. Only 3 shifts.

The watch consists of a helmsman who directly turns the wheel, a watchman who gives commands to the sailor where to turn the steering wheel and is responsible for the entire ship, and a watch assistant who makes entries in the ship's log, marks the position of the ship on the map and helps the watchman.

The watch chief usually stood in the left wing of the bridge, where all the equipment necessary for navigation was installed. The three large levers in the middle are the handles of the machine telegraphs, which control the speed of rotation of the screws. Each of them has 41 positions - 20 forward, 20 backward and stop:

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Steering sailor. Please note the size of the steering wheel:

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Radio room. From here I sent photos:

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The icebreaker has a huge number of gangways, including several representative ones:

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Corridors and doors to cabins.

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The bar where we whiled away the sunny white nights:

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Library. I don’t know what kind of books are usually there, since for our cruise the books were brought from Canada and they were all in English:

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Icebreaker lobby and reception window:

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Mailbox. I wanted to send myself a postcard from the North Pole, but I forgot:

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Let's start with the name of the ship itself: as you can see in the photo, it is not translated into English, but transliterated. This is the practice of international shipping.

The nuclear icebreaker "50 Let Pobedy" (formerly "Ural") is the largest in the world. Its construction was carried out at the Baltic Shipyard in Leningrad (now St. Petersburg) starting on October 4, 1989. The ship was launched in December 1993, but due to the current situation in the country, which led to the suspension of financing for the project, construction took a long time years was frozen and resumed only in 2003. After this, on February 1, 2007, the icebreaker went out for sea trials for the first time in the Gulf of Finland, and on March 23 of the same year the flag was raised on it. Finally, on April 11, 2007, the ship arrived at its permanent home port of Murmansk.

Main characteristics and data:

Tonnage: 22.33 / 25.84 thousand tons
Length: 159.6 m
Width: 30 m
Height: 17.2 m (side height)
Average draft: 11 m
Powerplant: 2 nuclear reactors
Propellers: 3 fixed pitch propellers with 4 removable blades
Power: 75,000 l. With.
Speed: max. 21.4 knots
Swimming autonomy: 7.5 months. (by provisions)
Crew: 138 people. After a series of reductions, reduced to 106 people

Any mechanism begins with control; control of the vessel, in particular the rowing and steering mechanisms, is carried out from the bridge:

By operating the helm on the bridge, the helmsman operates the hydraulic steering system located at the other end of the vessel. The photo shows a shaft that turns the steering wheel in accordance with the rotation of the steering wheel:

As already indicated in the main characteristics, the power plant, that is, the heart of the icebreaker, is a power plant consisting of two nuclear reactors. There were two places on the ship where filming was prohibited: the observation point for the reactors themselves and the central control center.

If we briefly outline the principle of generating energy using reactors, it will look like this: in the process of fission of uranium 235, steam is formed under a pressure of about 30 cubic meters per square centimeter, with the help of an electric generator it is converted into electricity and supplied to electric motors that rotate the screws.

Electric generators that supply current to electric motors:

To navigate the entire icebreaker system, even a standard sailor requires at least 3 years of training, so the crew is staffed with graduates of specialized universities, such as the State Maritime Academy. Admiral S.O. Makarova.

In this room there are electric motors that, using current, drive the axles connected to the propellers:

Two electric motors for the side propellers are located in one room, and the electric motor that rotates the central propeller is located in the next room. In the photo: the electric motor of one of the side propellers.

And this is the adjacent electrical installation:

There are reminders everywhere on the icebreaker about what needs to be done and what not to do:

Radio room:

Standards of decency are strictly observed:

One charge of uranium fuel is enough for 5-6 years of continuous operation, i.e. all this time the ship could actually be at sea without returning to the port...if not for the need for provisions: one load of food is enough for 7 months of voyage - in any case, a significant period. But what about water?
To provide fresh water to the needs of the crew and equipment, sea water desalinators capable of producing 120 tons of fresh water per day are installed on the ship. The salt residue released from this water is suitable for food products, but is dumped overboard as unnecessary.

It is worth noting that moving through the inside of an icebreaker is a kind of physical exercise, because... it involves constant descents and ascents along steep and narrow stairs:

While the icebreaker's propulsion equipment is entirely Russian-made, its navigation equipment is all Japanese:

I decided to leave the acquaintance with the on-board life of the crew until the end of the expedition, which in the end I had to regret greatly, because it was at the end of the journey that we encountered a severe storm that lasted more than two days. Of course, there was no time for filming in such conditions. All I have left on this topic is a photo of the crew canteen:

This is what the interiors look like in the superstructure of the ship. In the photo: the main staircase.

This is a cafeteria where you can play darts or kicker, watch a DVD or listen to music, read a book or magazine, play some board game or just sit with a cup of coffee or tea:

Literature in the cafeteria is presented in different languages: English, Russian, German and Japanese. The situation is the same with DVDs, only instead of Japanese, Chinese predominates there.

Next to the cafeteria there is a bar where you can sit on the sofa with a glass of something, admiring the views of the sea through the porthole glass:

At the stern of the icebreaker there is a multifunctional hall where ceremonial events, concerts, lectures and presentations are held:

In addition, from the bow of the vessel to its central part, additional protection made of stainless steel 7 mm thick is also installed on top of the icebreaker belt, which helps reduce friction between the hull and the ice.

The icebreaker is also equipped with a special turbocharger, which is connected to a pipe system. Air is supplied through it at low pressure, which exits through a system of holes in the bow of the vessel. Due to this, an additional reduction in friction between the hull and the ice is achieved. When the compressor is running, the water at the bow of the icebreaker looks as if it is boiling.

Since the icebreaker is a nuclear facility, it needs heavy-duty protection, with which it is adequately provided. If a similar ship crashes into the side of the nuclear reactor compartment of an icebreaker at full speed, the reactor will not receive damage and will be able to continue operating. The same applies to the upper part of the reactor compartment: a plane crash will not cause damage to the nuclear installation and will not cause interruptions in operation. But what consequences a missile strike will cause is unknown, because the ship is for peaceful purposes, and such tests have not been carried out.

As for laying a fairway in ice, the ship does not cut the ice at all, as it might seem, but rather splits it, pressing on it with its bow. Therefore, when moving through dense ice, a loud sound is heard from the bow hitting the ice floes, and the ship’s hull shudders violently.

This concludes my story about the construction of the icebreaker. Stories about the Arctic, the North Pole and Franz Josef Land lie ahead.

To be continued!

Andrey Akatov
Yuri Koryakovsky
Federal State Budgetary Educational Institution of Higher Professional Education "St. Petersburg State Technological Institute (Technical University)", Department of Engineering Radioecology and Radiochemical Technology

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The development of the Northern Sea Route is unthinkable without the development of a nuclear icebreaker fleet. Our country also takes the lead in creating a nuclear-powered surface vessel. The article provides interesting facts related to the creation and operation of nuclear-powered ships, their structure and principles of operation. The new requirements for the icebreaker fleet in modern conditions and the prospects for its development are considered. A description of new projects of nuclear icebreakers and floating power units is given.

The Arctic is conquered only by people with a strong will, who are able to move towards their intended goal, regardless of the circumstances. Their ships should be the same: powerful, autonomous, capable of long, exhausting journeys in difficult ice conditions. We will talk about precisely such vessels, which are the pride of Russia - nuclear icebreakers.

Nuclear-powered icebreakers provide guidance for tankers and other vessels along the Northern Sea Route, evacuation of polar stations from drifting ice floes that have become unsuitable for work and dangerous to the lives of polar explorers, as well as rescue ships stuck in ice and conduct scientific research.

Nuclear icebreakers differ from conventional (diesel-electric) icebreakers, which cannot sail for a long time without calling at ports. Their fuel reserve is up to a third of the ship's weight, but it only lasts for about a month. There have been cases when convoys of ships got stuck in the ice only because the icebreakers ran out of fuel ahead of time.

A nuclear icebreaker is much more powerful and has greater autonomy, i.e., it is capable of performing ice tasks for a longer period of time without entering ports. This multifunctional vessel is a miracle of engineering, which Russians have the right to be proud of. Moreover, the Russian nuclear icebreaker fleet is the only one in the world, and no one else has such ships. And the championship in the creation of a nuclear-powered surface vessel also belongs to our country. This happened in the 50s. last century.

Ice "Lenin"

The successes of scientists and engineers in mastering atomic energy led to the idea of ​​using a nuclear reactor as a ship engine. New ship installations promised unprecedented advantages in the power and autonomy of ships, but the path to obtaining the coveted technical characteristics was thorny. No one in the world has ever developed such projects. It was necessary to create not just a nuclear reactor, but a powerful, compact and at the same time fairly light nuclear power plant that would be conveniently placed in a housing.

The developers also remembered that their brainchild would experience pitching, shock loads and vibrations. They also did not forget about the safety of personnel: radiation protection on a ship is much more difficult than at a nuclear power plant, because bulky and heavy protective equipment cannot be used here.

The first designed nuclear icebreaker had high power and was twice as powerful as the world's largest American icebreaker, Glacier, which placed special demands on the strength of the hull, the shape of the bow and stern ends, and the survivability of the ship. The designers, engineers and builders were faced with a fundamentally new technical problem, and they solved it in the shortest possible time!

While the country was launching the world's first nuclear power plant (1954) and launching the first Soviet nuclear submarine (1957), the world's first nuclear surface vessel was being created and built in Leningrad. In 1953–1956 The TsKB-15 (now Iceberg) team under the leadership of chief designer V.I. Neganov developed a project, the implementation of which began in 1956 at the Leningrad shipyard named after. Andre Marty. The design of the nuclear plant was carried out under the leadership of I. I. Afrikantov, and the hull steel was specially developed at the Prometheus Institute. Leningrad factories equipped the icebreaker with turbines (Kirov Plant) and electric propulsion motors (Elektrosila). Not a single foreign detail! 75 km of pipelines of different diameters. The length of the welds is the same as the distance from Murmansk to Vladivostok! The most difficult technical problem was solved in the shortest possible time.

Launching took place on December 5, 1957, and on September 12, 1959, the nuclear icebreaker "Lenin" under the command of P. A. Ponomarev from the shipyard of the Admiralty Plant (the renamed shipbuilding plant named after A. Marti) set off for sea trials. It became the world's first nuclear-powered surface ship, since the first foreign-made nuclear-powered ship (nuclear-powered missile cruiser Long Beach, USA) was put into operation much later - on September 9, 1961 - and the first merchant ship with a nuclear power plant, Savannah (also American) set sail only on August 22, 1962. The journey from Leningrad to Murmansk was memorable.

Icebreaker "Arktika"

While the ship was sailing around Scandinavia, it was accompanied by NATO aircraft and ships. The boats took water samples from the side to ensure the radiation safety of the icebreaker. All their fears turned out to be in vain - after all, even in the cabins adjacent to the reactor compartment, the background radiation was normal.

The operation of the nuclear icebreaker "Lenin" made it possible to increase the navigation period. During its operation, the nuclear-powered ship covered 1.2 million km and carried 3,741 ships through the ice. There are many interesting facts about the first nuclear-powered icebreaker. For example, he consumed only 45 grams of nuclear fuel (less than a matchbox) per day.

It could be converted into an Arctic military cruiser. Among other things, the icebreaker served as camouflage for Soviet nuclear submarines: the ship followed a given course, leading nuclear submarines sliding in the depths under its hull to a given high-latitude area.

Having worked well for 30 years, in 1989 the nuclear icebreaker Lenin was decommissioned and is now at its eternal mooring in Murmansk. A museum has been created on board the nuclear-powered ship, and an information center for the nuclear industry operates. But even today, the date December 3 (the day the national flag was raised on the world’s first nuclear-powered ship) is celebrated as the birthday of the Russian nuclear icebreaker fleet.

From the Arctic to the present day

The nuclear icebreaker "Arktika" (1975) is the first ship in the world to reach the North Pole on the surface. Before this historic voyage, not a single icebreaker dared to go to the Pole. The top of the world was conquered on foot, by plane, by submarine. But not on an icebreaker.
The experimental scientific and practical voyage set off from Murmansk in an arc through the Barents and Kara seas into the Laptev Sea and then turned north towards the pole, encountering multi-year ice several meters thick along the way. On August 17, 1977, having overcome the thick ice cover of the Central Polar Basin, the nuclear-powered icebreaker reached the North Pole, thereby opening a new era in the study of the Arctic. And on May 25, 1987, another nuclear-powered icebreaker of the Arctic class, the Sibir (1977), visited “the top of the planet.” To date, both vessels have been taken out of service.

Currently, the nuclear icebreaker fleet operates four vessels.

Two icebreakers of the Taimyr class - Taimyr (1989) and Vaygach (1990) - are shallow-draft, which allows them to enter the mouths of large rivers and break ice up to 1.8 m thick. Indeed, icebreaking ships of the Arctic class from -due to their large draft, they are not able to enter shallow northern bays and rivers, as well as diesel-electric icebreakers (the latter due to low power and dependence on fuel supplies). The problem was solved within the framework of a joint Soviet-Finnish project: specialists from the USSR designed the nuclear power plant, and the Finns designed the icebreaker as a whole.

The other two remaining nuclear-powered icebreakers are of the Arktika class; they are capable of breaking ice up to 2.8 m at a steady speed:

• “Yamal” (1993) - on the bow of the nuclear-powered ship there is a smiling shark’s mouth, which appeared in 1994, when it took children from around the world to the North Pole as part of one of the humanitarian programs; Since then, the shark's mouth has become his brand;
• "50 Years of Victory" (2007) - the world's largest icebreaker; An environmental compartment has been created on the ship, equipped with the latest equipment for the collection and disposal of all waste products of the ship.

As already mentioned, nuclear icebreakers are capable of sailing for a long time without entering ports. The same "Arktika" clearly demonstrated this advantage, operating without a single breakdown and without calling at the home port (Murmansk) for exactly a year - from May 4, 1999 to May 4, 2000. The reliability of nuclear-powered ships was also proven by the "Arktika": August 24, 2005 . the ship passed the millionth mile, which has never been achieved by any ship of its class. Is it a lot or a little? A million nautical miles on the scale we know is 46 revolutions around the equator or 5 trips to the Moon. What a 30-year Arctic odyssey!

In addition to escorting Arctic caravans in the northern seas, since 1990, nuclear icebreakers (“Soviet Union”, “Yamal”, “50 Let Pobedy”) are also used to organize tourist trips to the North Pole. The cruise departs from Murmansk and, passing the islands of Franz Josef Land, the New Siberian Islands, the North Pole, returns to the mainland. Tourists are disembarked from the islands and ice floes by helicopter; All Arctic-class icebreakers are equipped with two helipads. The ships themselves are painted red, which is clearly visible from the air.

Separately, it is worth mentioning the Northern Sea Route. This unique transport vessel (lighter carrier) with a nuclear power plant and an icebreaker bow is also assigned to the port of Murmansk. It is called a lighter carrier because the Sevmorput can carry so-called lighters - non-self-propelled sea vessels designed to transport goods and ensure their processing. If there are no berths on the shore or the harbor is not deep enough, then the lighters are unloaded from the ship and towed to the shore, which is very convenient, especially in the conditions of the northern coast. Using special grips, the lifting device rigidly fixes the lighters and quickly lowers them into the water through the stern of the vessel. Containers can also be unloaded on the move, which has been used in special cases.

It should be noted that until recently, the future of the one-of-a-kind nuclear lighter carrier seemed very bleak: for many years the ship stood idle, and in August 2012, Sevmorput was completely excluded from the register book of ships and was awaiting the start of work to remove it from operation. However, in 2013, they decided that a ship of this class would still be useful to the fleet: an order was signed to restore the nuclear-powered ship. The service life of the nuclear installation will be extended, and the vessel's return to service is expected in the coming years.

So, we met representatives of the family of nuclear icebreakers. Now it's time to understand their structure.

How does a nuclear icebreaker work and how does it work?

In principle, all nuclear-powered icebreakers are designed almost the same, so let’s take as an example the newest of Russia’s nuclear-powered icebreakers - “50 Years of Victory”. The very first thing that can be said about it is that it is the largest icebreaker in the world.

Inside the nuclear icebreaker there are two nuclear reactors, enclosed in durable housings. Why two at once? Of course, to ensure its continuous operation, because the nuclear-powered ship faces the most difficult tests, which its diesel counterparts are sometimes unable to cope with. Even if one of the reactors exhausts its resource or stops for some other reason, the ship can proceed on the other. During normal navigation, the reactors work together. There are also backup diesel engines (in extreme cases).

During the operation of a nuclear reactor, a chain reaction of fission of uranium nuclei (or rather, its isotope uranium-235) occurs in it. As a result, nuclear fuel heats up. This heat is transferred through the shell of the fuel element, which acts as a protective coating, to the primary circuit water. The containment shell is necessary to prevent radionuclides contained in the fuel from entering the coolant.

The primary circuit water heats up above 300 °C, but does not boil because it is under high pressure. Then it enters steam generators (each reactor has four of them), threaded with tubes through which the secondary circuit water circulates, turning into steam. The steam is sent to the turbine unit (two turbines are installed on the ship), and the slightly cooled primary coolant is pumped back into the reactor by circulation pumps. To prevent rupture of pipelines during pressure surges in the primary circuit, a special module is provided, which is called a pressure compensator. The reactor itself is located in a casing filled with clean water (third circuit). There is no leakage of radioactive water from the primary circuit - it circulates in a closed circuit.

The steam generated from the secondary circuit water rotates the turbine shaft. The latter, in turn, rotates the rotor of the electric generator, which generates electric current. The current is supplied to three powerful electric motors that rotate three reinforced propellers (propeller weight - 50 tons). Electric motors provide very rapid changes in the direction of rotation of the screws and speed when the reactor is operating at constant power. Indeed, the icebreaker sometimes has to suddenly change direction (for example, sometimes it cuts the ice, moving back, accelerating and hitting the ice floe). The reactor is not suitable for such work (its task is to produce electricity), and the electric motor can easily be switched to reverse.

The secondary circuit steam, having worked in the turbine, enters the condenser. There it is cooled by sea water (fourth circuit) and condenses, that is, turns back into water. This water is pumped through a desalting plant to remove corrosive salts, and then through a deaerator, which removes corrosive gases (carbon dioxide and oxygen) from the water. Then, from the deaerator tank, feedwater from the secondary circuit is pumped into the steam generator - the cycle is closed.

Separately, it is necessary to say about the design of the reactor, which is called “water-water”, since the water in it performs two functions - a neutron moderator and a coolant. A similar design has proven itself well on nuclear submarines and was later brought onto land: land-based VVER-type reactors, which are already operating and will be installed at new Russian nuclear power units, are the heirs of the boat ones. Icebreaking nuclear power plants have also received excellent certification: not a single accident involving the release of radioactive substances into the environment in its entire fifty-year history.

The reactor is not harmful to the crew and the environment, since its durable body is surrounded by biological protection made of concrete, steel and water. In any emergency situation, in the event of a complete power outage and even during an overkill (turning the ship upside down), the reactor will be shut down - this is how the active protection system is designed.

The main job of an icebreaker is to destroy the ice cover. For these purposes, the icebreaker is given a special barrel-shaped shape, and the bow end has relatively sharp (wedge-shaped) formations and a slope (cut) in the underwater part at an angle to the waterline. The icebreaker "50 Let Pobedy" has a spoon-shaped bow (this distinguishes it from its predecessors), which allows it to break ice more efficiently. The aft end is designed for reversing movement in ice and allows you to protect the propellers and rudder. Of course, the hull of an icebreaker is much stronger than the hulls of conventional ships: it is double, and the outer hull is 2–3 cm thick, and in the area of ​​the so-called ice belt (i.e., in places where ice breaks), the hull sheets are thickened to 5 cm.

When meeting an ice field, the icebreaker's bow seems to crawl onto it and breaks through the ice due to vertical force. Then the broken ice moves apart and is sunk by the sides, and a free channel is formed behind the icebreaker. In this case, the ship moves continuously at a constant speed. If the ice floe is especially strong, then the icebreaker moves back and runs at it at high speed, i.e., cuts the ice with blows. In rare cases, an icebreaker can get stuck - for example, crawl onto a strong ice floe and not break it - or be crushed by ice. To get out of this difficult situation, water tanks are provided between the outer and inner hulls - in the bow, in the stern, on the left and right sides. By pumping water from tank to tank, the crew can rock the icebreaker and pull it out of ice captivity. You can simply empty the containers - then the ship will float a little.

To prevent the bow from becoming covered with ice, the icebreaker uses a turbocharged anti-icing device. It works as follows. Compressed air is supplied overboard through pipelines. Pop-up air bubbles prevent pieces of ice from freezing to the body, and also reduce its friction against the ice. At the same time, the icebreaker moves faster and shakes less.

The icebreaker can be followed by one or more ships (caravan). If the ice conditions are difficult or the transport vessel is wider than the icebreaker, then two or more icebreakers can be used for navigation. In particularly difficult ice, the icebreaker takes the vessel in tow: the stern of the nuclear-powered ship has a V-shaped recess, into which the bow of the transport vessel is pulled tightly in with a winch.

One of the interesting features of the nuclear icebreaker “50 Let Pobedy” is the presence of an environmental compartment, which contains the latest equipment that allows for the collection and disposal of all waste produced during the operation of the vessel. In other words, nothing is dumped into the ocean! Other nuclear icebreakers also have installations for incineration of household waste and wastewater treatment.

All nuclear icebreakers and the lighter carrier Sevmorput have been transferred to the management of the Rosatom State Corporation enterprise - FSUE Atomflot, which provides not only their operation, but also technical support. Coastal infrastructure, floating technical bases, a special tanker for liquid radioactive waste, a radiation control vessel - all this ensures the continuous operation of the Russian nuclear icebreaker fleet. But in ten years, most nuclear icebreakers will be decommissioned, and practice has shown that without them we have nothing to do in the Arctic. How will nuclear icebreaker construction develop?

Development prospects

Until relatively recently, the prospects for the Russian nuclear icebreaker fleet were very gloomy. Newspapers wrote that the country could lose its unique fleet, and with it the Northern Sea Route (NSR). This would mean not only the loss of leadership and technology, but also a slowdown in the economic development of the Far North and the Arctic regions of Siberia. After all, a transport route, including an overland one, that could serve as an alternative to the NSR simply does not exist.

There are also questions regarding existing nuclear icebreakers. The tonnage of vessels sailing along the NSR is gradually increasing, and their dimensions are also increasing. To ensure the required wiring speed, a wide channel in the ice and increased power are needed. Therefore, the size of the icebreaker itself should be increased. But at the same time, the nuclear icebreaker, which does not need a fuel reserve, begins to float, the draft becomes smaller and the ice-breaking capacity decreases. In order to increase the draft and protect the propellers from ice, it is necessary to build into the ship's hull a system of containers that are filled with water and add additional weight.

Thus, even existing nuclear-powered ships do not meet the latest requirements. Therefore, the modernization and development of the nuclear icebreaker fleet has become a truly national task and is under the close attention of the Government of the Russian Federation.

The project of a new type of icebreaker - LK-60Ya - is already being implemented. One of them, “Arktika”, has been under construction since 2013, the second, “Sibir”, was laid down quite recently, in May 2015 (at the same time, the icebreakers under construction inherited the names of the first two ships of the “Arctic series”). In total, the immediate plans include three new vessels, including those mentioned.

What will the new look of the nuclear icebreaker be like? Of course, it will combine the successful experience of creating and operating existing nuclear-powered ships and innovative approaches. But the main thing is that the new icebreaker will be double-draft (universal), which will allow it to successfully carry out operations not only at sea, but also at river mouths. Now we have to use two icebreakers, one of which (Arktika class) goes through deep waters, and the second (with shallow draft, for example, Taimyr class) passes through rapids and enters river mouths. The new project includes the possibility of changing the draft of a nuclear icebreaker from 10.5 to 8.5 m by draining/filling the built-in tanks with sea water, i.e. one nuclear-powered icebreaker can replace two old ones at once!

But double-draft nuclear-powered ships are not the limit of design ideas. While icebreakers of the LK-60Ya type are being built, engineers are already working on the next project, which will bring nuclear icebreaker construction to a new stage of development. We are talking about a ship of the LK-110Ya type (also known as “Leader”) - a large vessel with a propeller power of 110 MW. In terms of performance, the LK-110Ya will be much superior to the Arktika-class icebreakers: the Leader will be able to break ice up to at least 3.7 m thick (two human heights!). This will make it possible to ensure year-round navigation throughout the entire NSR (and not just along its western part, as now). At the same time, the increased width of the LK-110Ya will allow carrying large-tonnage vessels. Currently, the project is at the stage of developing design documentation (the expected completion date for the “paper” part is 2016).

There is one more direction in nuclear engineering that needs to be mentioned. The KLT-40 icebreaking power plants have proven themselves so well that a decision was made to include them in the floating nuclear power plant (FNPP) project. It is indispensable in underdeveloped regions of the country, including on the Arctic coast, since it practically does not require fuel supplies. There is no need to cut down forests, build roads, or transport building materials for it: they brought it, placed it at a special pier - and you can use it. The resource ran out - they attached it to a tug and took it away for disposal.

Floating power plants can also be used when developing fields on the shelf of the Arctic seas to provide electricity to oil and gas platforms.

The first floating power unit, the Akademik Lomonosov, was launched on June 30, 2010 at the Baltic Shipyard in St. Petersburg. At the moment, the power equipment of the station has been completely manufactured; reactor plants and turbogenerators have already been installed, and outfitting work is underway.

Concluding the brief review, the following must be said: the development of the Arctic is a necessary condition for the development of Russia as a great maritime and Arctic power, and the safe use of nuclear energy determines the economic and technological growth of our state. Therefore, there is confidence: the nuclear icebreaker fleet has an outstanding future and new achievements!