Environmental activists protest the use of nuclear powered icebreakers for arctic tourism.
The nuclear-powered icebreaker,Yamal, is in the background. Conspicuously absent is any mention of safety risks associated with the boat's two nuclear reactors or of the hazards and difficulties presented when handling nuclear waste the tour helps generate. For its return voyage south, Quark Expeditions hoped Sovetskiy Soyuz could anchor at Longyearbyen, in Svalbard, where its party of tourists could transfer to a chartered airline. But Norwegian authorities, sensitive to the ships twin hazards, denied the vessel permission to enter the waters around Svalbard. The Norwegian Radiation Protection Agency has described the nuclear installations aboard Sovietsiy Soyuz as failing to meet current safety norms.