page_title: Nuclear-powered icebreaker
section_title: Russian nuclear icebreakers
hierarchical_section_title: Nuclear-powered icebreaker / Russian nuclear icebreakers
caption_attribution_description: English: The russian nuclear powered icebreaker Nuclear Ship "50 Years Since Victory" (50 Let Pobedy).
context_page_description: A nuclear-powered icebreaker is a nuclear-powered ship purpose-built for use in waters covered with ice. The only country constructing nuclear-powered icebreakers is Russia. Nuclear-powered icebreakers have been constructed by the Soviet Union and later Russia primarily to aid shipping along the Northern Sea Route in the frozen Arctic waterways north of Siberia. Nuclear-powered icebreakers are much more powerful than their diesel-powered counterparts, and although nuclear propulsion is expensive to install and maintain, very heavy fuel demands and limitations on range, compounded with the difficulty of refueling in the Arctic region, can make diesel vessels less practical and economical overall for these ice-breaking duties.
  During the winter, the ice along the Northern Sea Route varies in thickness from 1.2 to 2.0 metres. The ice in central parts of the Arctic Ocean is on average 2.5 metres thick. Nuclear-powered icebreakers can force through this ice at speeds up to 10 knots. In ice-free waters, the maximum speed of the nuclear-powered icebreakers is as much as 21 knots.
context_section_description: In all, ten civilian nuclear-powered vessels have been built in the USSR and Russia. Nine of these are icebreakers, and one is a container ship with an icebreaking bow. All six nuclear-powered icebreakers of the Arktika class have been built at the Baltic Shipyard in St. Petersburg. Vaigach and Taimyr were built at the Helsinki New Shipyard in Finland and then brought to Russia for installation of the reactors and turbogenerators.
caption: The world's largest nuclear icebreaker, 50 let Pobedy. Note that the Arktika (2016) is larger, but won't be commissioned until 2020.
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