In essence, a nuclear icebreaker is a steamship. The nuclear reactor heats water, which turns into steam, which spins turbines that excite generators that 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 skin, but by the number and location of the frames. The icebreaker has a double bottom, so that in the event of a hole, water will not enter the ship.
The nuclear icebreaker "50 Let Pobedy" has two 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 in the reactor of a passenger aircraft or a collision with the same icebreaker at speeds up to 10 km/h.
Reactors are filled with new fuel every 5 years!
We had a short tour of the engine room of the icebreaker, photos of which are under the cut. Plus, I will show where we ate, what we ate, how the rest of the interior of the icebreaker rested ...
The tour began in the office of the chief engineer. He briefly spoke about the structure of the icebreaker and where we would go during the tour. 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, produce alternating current. In the background, the yellow boxes are the rectifiers. Since the propulsion motors are powered by direct current, it must be rectified:
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Rectifiers:
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Electric motors that rotate the 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 machine looks very impressive. On the bridge, the helmsman turns a small steering wheel with his finger, and here huge pistons turn the steering wheel astern:
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And this is the top of the steering wheel. He himself is in the water. The 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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Water can be tasted directly from the distiller. I drank - plain distilled water:
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Auxiliary boilers:
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The ship provides a lot of degrees of protection against emergency situations. One of them is extinguishing fires with carbon dioxide:
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Purely in Russian - oil drips from under the gasket. Instead of replacing the gasket, they just hung the jar. Believe it or not, it's the same at my house. I have a heated towel rail leaking in the same way, so I still haven’t replaced it, but I just pour out 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 helm, a Watch Chief who gives commands to the sailor where to turn the rudder and is responsible for the entire ship and an officer on duty who makes entries in the logbook, marks the position of the ship on the map and helps the Watch Chief.
The senior watch 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 machine telegraph handles that control the speed of the propellers. Each of them has 41 positions - 20 forward, 20 back and stop:
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Steering sailor. Pay attention to 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 ladders, 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 books are usually there, because 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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Icebreaker Yamal, one of the newest Russian Arctic vessels, breaks through hummocks
Hundreds of people swarm on the snow-covered surface of the frozen river. From a distance, what was going on there could be mistaken for a strange holiday or a wall-to-wall fist fight. However, approaching and looking closely, the observer would notice that in the movements of people there is an orderliness inherent in joint work. Several dozen men were chiseling a furrow in the ice with their picks, and then, joining hundreds of others, they harnessed themselves to an unusual mechanism - a long, twenty meters, pointed box, loaded in the back with cast-iron ingots. The projectile, nicknamed the ice sleigh, crawled onto the ice, pushed through it and crushed the broken blocks under itself, leaving behind a long polynya more than two meters wide crossing the river.
So in the times of Peter the Great, ice ferries were built, which were sometimes also equipped with cannons. Their nuclei crushed the ice along the ferry.
The Russian winter, which lasts nine months a year in the northern regions, spurred the inquisitive mind to look for unusual ways of sailing. And the fact that our country faces the Arctic Ocean, which is the shortest road from the European part of the country to the riches of Eastern Siberia and the Far East, forced us to go through the ice at the risk of life.
In pursuit of profit
Maritime business, brought under Peter I from Holland and England, brought many new words into the Russian language. However, Russia also enriched foreign languages with the maritime term: after all, both the German Eisbreher and the English icebreaker are tracing papers from the Russian word "icebreaker". And we owe this to the Kronstadt mayor Mikhail Britnev.
It is clear that the Russian breeder, who kept a small fleet on the St. Petersburg-Oranienbaum-Kronstadt line, was driven not by linguistic interest and not by pure ambition. The way to Kronstadt runs along the Gulf of Finland, covered with ice 120 days a year. In winter, they got there through the frozen sea on sledges, but as long as the ice was thin, the communication almost ceased.
An inquisitive businessman, familiar with the experience of the inhabitants of the Russian North - the Pomors, who have been sailing the Arctic seas on their wooden boats for more than five hundred years, decided to learn from their experience. The contours of the hull of the Pomeranian Kochi formed an acute angle of approximately 20-30 degrees in the bow. So Britnev also ordered the bow of his 60-horsepower steamship Pilot to be redone in the same way. And on April 25, 1864, much earlier than the usual start of navigation, the Pilot, breaking the melted ice, passed from Kronstadt to Oranienbaum, bringing a considerable additional income to its owner. Like the ancient "ice sleigh", the ship climbed onto the ice field and broke it with its weight. Later, the shipowner adapted his other steamship, the Boy, for ice navigation. Both ships served in St. Petersburg waters for about 25 years, having worked out the way to navigate ice fields, which is still used today by all icebreakers, including state-of-the-art nuclear ones.
In 1871, when unprecedented frosts fettered European northern ports, Hamburg industrialists turned to Britnev, and he sold them drawings of a converted Pilot for 300 rubles. According to these drawings, the first foreign icebreaker Eisbreher I was built, and the design of the ship was widely used in the world.
It was the success of the Britnev idea that gave the famous Russian naval commander and oceanologist Admiral Makarov the idea of building the first Ermak line icebreaker, which played a serious role in the development of the Arctic.
"Nut" among the ice
In his public lecture in 1897, "To the North Pole - ahead," Admiral Makarov stated: "No nation is interested in icebreakers, as much as Russia. Nature has frozen our seas with ice, but technology is now providing enormous means, and it must be admitted that at present the ice cover no longer presents an insurmountable obstacle to navigation.
A year later, the Yermak was launched in Newcastle, England. It was built according to the terms of reference developed under the guidance of Stepan Makarov himself and the famous Russian chemist Dmitri Mendeleev, who supported his risky project.
Indeed, as the tests showed, the northern ice did not present an “insurmountable obstacle”, and yet it was not easy to deal with them.
Archimedes, of course, was right when he asserted that a buoyant force equal to the weight of the liquid displaced by it acts on a body immersed in a liquid. However, in the ice, the ship is also subjected to monstrous lateral pressure, which can crush it like a shell. Therefore, the section of the icebreaker's hull is made in the form of a barrel or a nut, and the waterline should be below the widest part. Then the ice squeezing the icebreaker, no matter how hard they try, will push it out and will not be able to crush it. Naturally, increased requirements for strength and unsinkability are applied to icebreakers. If you look under the thickened skin compared to a conventional ship, you can see a system of reinforced beams: stringers, frames ... - and the entire hull of the icebreaker is divided by watertight bulkheads into several sealed compartments. In the waterline area, the skin is reinforced with an additional strip - the so-called ice belt. And to overcome the frictional resistance of the hull on the ice, a pneumatic washer device is used, which pumps air bubbles through small holes in the board.
The bevel of the hull contours in the bow, used by the inventor of the icebreaker Britnev, is still used today. Moreover, not only the stem (“nose” of the ship) is sharpened, but also the sternpost, since it is necessary to move in the ice in the “shuttle” way - “back and forth”. It is interesting that initially the Ermak icebreaker had two propellers - in front and behind. Admiral Makarov spied on such a scheme from American small icebreakers that sailed along the Great Lakes. However, the very first collision with the Arctic ice showed that the front propeller in high latitudes is no help, and the icebreaker was remade.
In attack and defense
The action of an icebreaker is by no means limited to a simple crushing of ice, although, of course, the larger part is on top of the ice field, the longer the lever arm and the higher the efficiency of work. Important, as was said, is the shape of the "nose", and the emphasis (thrust force) of the propellers, and the inertial properties of the ship operating in raids.
An icebreaker could be compared to a military unit that has the means and tactics for both defense and offensive. For the offensive, each icebreaker is equipped with a trim system. In a few words, it can be described as two tanks - bow and stern - alternately filled with outboard water. On the first icebreakers, the tanks were connected by a pipe, later each of them was equipped with its own pump.
Having climbed onto the ice field, the icebreaker fills the bow tanks with water and gives additional dynamics to the movement from top to bottom. The alternating filling of the tanks causes it to swing vigorously from bow to stern, as a splitter does when it gets stuck in a log. By pumping out water from the bow tanks and filling the stern tanks, the icebreaker quickly returns to clear water to repeat the attack.
The same system ensures the rocking of the vessel from side to side: additional tanks are located on both sides.
Naturally, all these actions require an energy saturation that is unusual for any other ship. It is not surprising that for a long time the icebreakers could not perform any other marine work - neither cargo nor passenger - except for escorting ships: the entire interior of these "armored safes" was occupied by the engine and fuel supply. Just the main marine specialty of the icebreaker is due to the shape of its hull: it is made wide so that the channel remaining behind it is convenient for the passage of slave ships. The length of the vessel, for better maneuverability, is being tried to be reduced.
The first icebreakers were steam-powered, with coal-fired boilers and steam plants. Coal, which filled almost all the free space in the hold, was usually enough for thirty days. It happened that in the middle of the route, the icebreaker commander informed the caravan that he was stopping the wiring and leaving for the port to replenish fuel supplies.
The next generation was diesel icebreakers, the power plants of which rotated the rotors of electric generators. The current was supplied to the electric motors that set in motion the propeller shaft with the propeller.
But to conquer the Arctic ice, more and more power was required, and diesel icebreakers were replaced by nuclear icebreakers, whose reactors drive steam generators, steam turbines power generators, and electric motors power propeller shafts with propellers. In the holds of nuclear-powered ships, the place of fuel was taken by powerful radiation protection systems.
On the edge
One hundred and forty years of the history of icebreakers have changed a lot in their design, most of all their power has increased. If the power of the Ermak engines was 9.5 thousand hp, then the diesel-electric icebreaker Moskva, which went to sea about half a century later, was twice as powerful - 22 thousand hp. Modern nuclear-powered icebreakers of the Taimyr type already harness 50,000 "horses".
Due to the difficulties of their maritime profession, the power of the icebreakers' propulsion systems per ton of displacement is six times higher than that of ocean liners. But even nuclear icebreakers remained qualitatively the same - armored boxes filled with herds of "horses". The business of icebreakers is to break through the ice for the caravans of ordinary tankers and transporters following them. This principle of organizing transportation can be compared with the movement of barges behind a tugboat. Recently, however, self-propelled barges have become more and more in demand, and marine engineers began to think about how to teach transport ships to walk independently in ice.
The idea is not new: back in the 60s of the XIX century, the first Russian iron warship - the armored gunboat "Experience" was tried to be converted according to the project of engineer Euler into the original icebreaker. The “experience” was given a bow ram, several cranes were installed on board for dropping 20-40-pound weights, and “shots” were arranged in the underwater part - poles with explosives mounted on them. However, the "Experience" did not stand the test and was again converted into a gunboat, called the "Mina".
Later, attempts were made to cut the ice with cutters or melt it, but they did not justify themselves (although auxiliary devices for heating the bow of the hull are used on the nuclear icebreakers Arktika and Sibir). And then it was decided to try to change not just the way of breaking ice, but the icebreaker itself, making it not a “cleaver”, but a “blade”. To do this, it was planned to turn the ship into a “catamaran”, two hulls of which would be located one above the other: all cargoes would be placed in the lower, underwater part, and the power plants in the surface, and both parts would be connected with narrow “knives”, inside which would be placed coming from the hull into the body of the loading and unloading pipes. Whether such a transport icebreaker will appear is unknown, but the fact that the Russian icebreaker fleet should continue to develop is beyond doubt: the expanses of the Arctic will always beckon with their riches.
The largest and most powerful icebreaker in the world June 16th, 2016
Now let's start with the story...
The nuclear-powered icebreaker Arktika went down in history as the first surface ship to reach the North Pole. The nuclear-powered ship "Arktika" (from 1982 to 1986 was called "Leonid Brezhnev") is the lead ship of the project 10520 series. The laying of the vessel took place on July 3, 1971 at the Baltic Shipyard in Leningrad. More than 400 associations and enterprises, research and design organizations, including the Experimental Design Bureau of Mechanical Engineering named after V.I. I. I. Afrikantova and the Research Institute of Atomic Energy. Kurchatov.
The icebreaker was launched in December 1972, and in April 1975 the ship was put into operation.
The Arktika nuclear-powered icebreaker was designed to pilot vessels in the Arctic Ocean with the performance of various types of icebreaking operations. The length of the ship was 148 meters, width - 30 meters, side height - about 17 meters. The power of the nuclear steam generating plant exceeded 55 megawatts. Due to its technical performance, the nuclear-powered ship could break through ice 5 meters thick, and in clear water reach speeds of up to 18 knots.
The first trip of the icebreaker Arktika to the North Pole took place in 1977. It was a large-scale experimental project, in which scientists had to not only reach the geographic point of the North Pole, but also conduct a series of studies and observations, as well as test the capabilities of the Arktika and the stability of the vessel in a constant collision with ice. More than 200 people took part in the expedition.
On August 9, 1977, the nuclear-powered ship left the port of Murmansk, heading for the Novaya Zemlya archipelago. In the Laptev Sea, the icebreaker turned north.
And on August 17, 1977, at 4 am Moscow time, the nuclear-powered icebreaker, having overcome the thick ice cover of the Central Polar Basin, for the first time in the world reached the geographic point of the North Pole in active navigation. For 7 days and 8 hours, the nuclear-powered ship covered 2528 miles. The age-old dream of sailors and polar explorers of many generations has come true. The crew and members of the expedition celebrated this event with a solemn ceremony of hoisting the State Flag of the USSR on a ten-meter steel mast mounted on the ice. During the 15 hours that the nuclear-powered ship spent on top of the Earth, scientists completed a set of studies and observations. Before leaving the Pole, the sailors lowered into the waters of the Arctic Ocean a commemorative metal plate with the State Emblem of the USSR and the inscription “USSR. 60 years of October, a / l "Arktika", latitude 90 ° -N, 1977.
This icebreaker has high sides, four decks and two platforms, a forecastle and a five-tier superstructure, and three four-blade fixed-pitch propellers are used as propulsors. The nuclear steam generating plant is located in a special compartment in the middle part of the icebreaker. The hull of the icebreaker is made of high-strength alloyed steel. In places subject to the greatest impact of ice loads, the hull is reinforced with an ice belt. The icebreaker has trim and roll systems. Towing operations are provided by a stern electric towing winch. A helicopter is based on the icebreaker for conducting ice reconnaissance. The control and management of the technical means of the power plant are carried out automatically, without constant watch in the engine rooms, rooms for propulsion electric motors, power plants and switchboards.
Control over the operation and control of the power plant is carried out from the central control post, additional control of the propeller motors is brought to the wheelhouse and aft post. The wheelhouse is the ship's control center. On a nuclear-powered ship, it is located on the top floor of the superstructure, from where a greater view opens. The wheelhouse is stretched across the vessel - from side to side by 25 meters, its width is about 5 meters. Large rectangular portholes are located almost entirely on the front and side walls. Inside the cabin, only the most necessary. Near the sides and in the middle there are three identical consoles, on which there are control knobs for the movement of the vessel, indicators for the operation of the three propellers of the icebreaker and the position of the rudder, heading indicators and other sensors, as well as buttons for filling and draining ballast tanks and a huge typhon button for sound signal. Near the control panel of the left side there is a navigation table, near the central one - a steering wheel, at the starboard side panel - a hydrological table; near the navigational and hydrological tables, pedestals of all-round radars were installed.
In early June 1975, the nuclear-powered icebreaker Admiral Makarov navigated the Northern Sea Route to the east. In October 1976, the icebreaker "Ermak" with the dry cargo ship "Kapitan Myshevsky", as well as the icebreaker "Leningrad" with the transport "Chelyuskin" pulled out of the ice captivity. The captain of the Arktika called those days the "finest hour" of the new nuclear-powered ship.
Arktika was decommissioned in 2008.
On July 31, 2012, the nuclear-powered icebreaker Arktika, the first ship to reach the North Pole, was excluded from the Register of Ships.
According to the information voiced by representatives of the Federal State Unitary Enterprise "Rosatomflot" to the press, the total cost of dismantling the a/l "Arktika" is estimated at 1.3-2 billion rubles, with the allocation of funds under the federal target program. Recently, there was a wide campaign to convince the management of refusing to be scrapped and the possibility of modernizing this icebreaker.
And now we come closer to the topic of our post.
In November 2013, at the same Baltic Shipyard in St. Petersburg, the ceremony of laying the lead nuclear icebreaker of project 22220 took place. In honor of its predecessor, the nuclear-powered icebreaker was named Arktika. The universal two-draught nuclear icebreaker LK-60Ya will become the largest and most powerful in the world.
According to the project, the length of the vessel will be more than 173 meters, width - 34 meters, draft at the design waterline - 10.5 meters, displacement - 33.54 thousand tons. It will become the largest and most powerful (60 MW) nuclear-powered icebreaker in the world. The nuclear-powered ship will be equipped with a two-reactor power plant with the main source of steam from the RITM-200 reactor plant with a capacity of 175 MW.
On June 16, the lead nuclear icebreaker Arktika of project 22220 was launched at the Baltic Shipyard," the company said in a statement quoted by RIA Novosti.
Thus, the designers passed one of the most important stages in the construction of the ship. The Arktika will become the lead ship of Project 22220 and will give rise to a group of nuclear-powered icebreakers needed to explore the Arctic and strengthen Russia's presence in the region.
First, the rector of the Nikolo-Bogoyavlensky Naval Cathedral conducted the baptism of the atomic icebreaker. Then the speaker of the Federation Council Valentina Matvienko, following the traditions of shipbuilders, broke a bottle of champagne on the hull of the nuclear-powered ship.
“It is difficult to overestimate what has been done by our scientists, designers, shipbuilders. There is a feeling of pride in our country, the people who created such a ship,” said Matvienko. She recalled that Russia is the only country that has its own nuclear-powered icebreaker fleet, which will allow active implementation of projects in the Arctic.
"We are entering a qualitatively new level of development of this richest region," she stressed.
"Seven feet under the keel to you, the great "Arktika"!" - added the speaker of the Federation Council.
In turn, Vladimir Bulavin, presidential envoy for the Northwestern Federal District, noted that Russia is building new ships, despite the difficult economic situation.
"If you like, this is our answer to the challenges and threats of our time," Bulavin said.
Director General of the state corporation "Rosatom" Sergei Kiriyenko, in turn, called the launch of the new icebreaker a great victory for both the designers and the staff of the Baltic Shipyard. According to Kiriyenko, Arktika opens up "fundamentally new opportunities both in the field of ensuring the defense capability of our country and in solving economic problems."
Project 22220 vessels will be able to conduct convoys of ships in arctic conditions, breaking through ice up to three meters thick. The new ships will provide escort for ships carrying hydrocarbons from the fields of the Yamal and Gydan Peninsulas, the Kara Sea shelf to the markets of the Asia-Pacific region. The dual draft design allows the vessel to be used both in arctic waters and in the mouths of polar rivers.
Under a contract with FSUE "Atomflot", the Baltic Shipyard will build three nuclear-powered icebreakers of project 22220. On May 26 last year, the first serial icebreaker of this project, Siberia, was laid down. This autumn, it is planned to begin construction of the second Ural icebreaker.
The contract for the construction of the lead nuclear icebreaker of project 22220 between FSUE Atomflot and BZS was signed in August 2012. Its cost is 37 billion rubles. The contract for the construction of two serial nuclear icebreakers of project 22220 was signed between BZS and the state corporation Rosatom in May 2014, the contract value was 84.4 billion rubles.
sources
Nuclear - court, built specifically for use in waters covered with ice all year round. They break the ice with a specially adapted bow, and in some cases - with a stern.
Nuclear icebreakers much more powerful than diesel. They were designed in Russia to provide navigation in the cold waters of the Arctic. One of the main advantages of nuclear power is the absence of the need for frequent refueling, which can arise when sailing in ice, when this is not possible, or such refueling is very difficult. All nuclear have an electrical transmission to the propellers. In winter, the ice thickness in the Arctic Ocean varies from 1.2 to 2 m, and in some places reaches 2.5 m. Nuclear icebreakers capable of passing in waters covered with such ice at a speed of 20 km / h (11 knots), and in ice-free waters - up to 45 km / h (up to 25 knots).
Since 1989, nuclear power plants have been used for tourist trips to the North Pole. , which lasts three weeks, costs $25,000. For the first time atomic Russia"was used for this purpose in 1989. Since 1991, nuclear power has been used for this. Soviet Union"and since 1993 - nuclear" Yamal". It has a special section for tourists. Built in 2007 50 years of Victory» also has the same section.
cruise trips to Greenland are carried out on such an icebreaker
All ten existing nuclear power plants in the world (although one of them is actually not an icebreaker, but with an icebreaker prow) were built in the USSR. These ships were built at the Admiralty Shipyards and the Baltic Shipyard in St. Petersburg. Two icebreakers - river " Vaygach" And " Taimyr"- were built at the new Helsinki shipyards in Finland and then transported to Leningrad for the installation of nuclear reactors.
icebreaker "50 Years of Victory"
Today the world's largest icebreaker is " 50 years of Victory» built at the Baltic Shipyard. The vessel is equipped with a new generation digital automatic control system. The complex of means of biological protection of the nuclear power plant has been modernized. An ecological compartment has been created, equipped with the latest equipment for the collection and disposal of all waste products ship. Vessel belongs to the Russian Federation Federal State Unitary Enterprise " Atomflot».
Technical data of the icebreaker« 50 years of Victory»:
Length - 160 m;
Width - 30 m;
Draft - 11 m;
Displacement - 25,000 tons;
Power plant - 2 nuclear reactors with a capacity of 75,000 hp;
Cruising speed - 21.4 knots;
The maximum fuel supply is about 4 years;
Crew - 140 people;
Passengers - 128 people;
icebreakers of the Arktika class
Icebreakers class " Arctic"- the basis of the Russian nuclear icebreaker fleet: 6 out of 10 nuclear icebreakers belong to the Arktika class. Since these icebreakers have been built for thirty years, there are some differences between them. As a rule, new icebreakers are faster, more powerful and require smaller crews to operate.
Technical data of the Arktika-class icebreaker:
Length - 150 m;
Width - 30 m;
Draft - 11.08 m;
Height - 55;
Maximum speed: 25 knots;
Crew - 150 people (including 50 officers and engineers);
Passengers: 100 people;
Ship power plant: two reactors - 900 with a capacity of 171 MW;
Icebreakers of this class have a double hull; the thickness of the outer hull in places of ice breaking is 48 mm, in other places - 25 mm. Between the hulls are water ballast tanks, which serve to change the trim in difficult ice conditions. Some court coated with a special polymer to reduce friction. Icebreakers of this class can break ice, moving both forward and backward. These are designed to operate in cold Arctic waters, which makes it difficult to operate a nuclear plant in warm seas. This is partly why crossing the tropics to work off the coast of Antarctica is not among their tasks. Typically, to ensure ship only one of the ship's two reactors is enough energy, but both are used during the voyage (at less than 50% power).
As a rule, on the class Arctic" there are all necessary amenities for the crew and passengers: swimming pool, sauna, cinema, gym, bar, restaurant, library and volleyball court. For everyone nuclear-powered ships class " Arctic» there is a helipad, for two helicopters that can be attached to them, for difficult flights or tourist cruises.
Russia has the only nuclear icebreaker fleet in the world, whose task is to ensure navigation in the northern seas and the development of the Arctic shelf. Nuclear-powered icebreakers can stay on the Northern Sea Route for a long time without needing refueling.
At present, the operating fleet includes the nuclear-powered ships Rossiya, Sovetsky Soyuz, Yamal, 50 Let Pobedy, Taimyr and Vaigach, as well as the nuclear-powered lighter-container carrier Sevmorput. They are operated and maintained by Rosatomflot, located in Murmansk.
A nuclear-powered icebreaker is a nuclear-powered marine vessel built specifically for use in year-round ice-covered waters. Nuclear icebreakers are much more powerful than diesel ones. In the USSR, they were developed to ensure navigation in the cold waters of the Arctic.
For the period 1959–1991. in the Soviet Union, 8 nuclear-powered icebreakers and 1 nuclear-powered lighter container ship were built.
In Russia, from 1991 to the present, two more nuclear-powered icebreakers have been built: Yamal (1993) and 50 Years of Victory (2007).
Three more nuclear-powered icebreakers with a displacement of more than 33,000 tons and an icebreaking capacity of almost three meters are currently under construction. The first one will be ready by 2017.
In total, more than 1,100 people work on nuclear icebreakers and ships based on the nuclear fleet of Atomflot.
Sovetsky Soyuz (nuclear icebreaker of the Arktika class)
Icebreakers of the Arktika class are the basis of the Russian nuclear icebreaker fleet: 6 out of 10 nuclear icebreakers belong to this class. Vessels have double hulls, can break ice, moving both forward and backward. These ships are designed to operate in cold Arctic waters, which makes it difficult to operate a nuclear facility in warm seas. This is partly why crossing the tropics to work off the coast of Antarctica is not among their tasks.
The displacement of the icebreaker is 21,120 tons, the draft is 11.0 m, the maximum speed in clear water is 20.8 knots.
The design feature of the icebreaker "Soviet Union" is that at any time it can be retrofitted into a battle cruiser. Initially, the ship was used for Arctic tourism. Making a transpolar cruise, it was possible to install meteorological ice stations operating in automatic mode, as well as an American meteorological buoy.
Department of GTG (main turbogenerators)
A nuclear reactor heats water, which turns into steam, which spins turbines, which energize generators, which generate electricity, which goes to electric motors that turn propellers.
CPU (Central control post)
Icebreaker control is concentrated in two main command posts: the wheelhouse and the central power plant control post (CPU). From the wheelhouse, the general management of the operation of the icebreaker is carried out, and from the central control room - the operation of the power plant, mechanisms and systems and control over their work.
The reliability of Arktika-class nuclear-powered ships has been tested and proven by time; in the more than 30-year history of nuclear-powered ships of this class, there has not been a single accident associated with a nuclear power plant.
Cabin for feeding officers. The dining room for the ratings is located on the deck below. The diet consists of a full four meals a day.
"Soviet Union" was put into operation in 1989, with a specified service life of 25 years. In 2008, the Baltic Shipyard supplied equipment for the icebreaker, which makes it possible to extend the life of the vessel. Currently, the icebreaker is planned to be restored, but only after a specific customer is identified or until transit along the Northern Sea Route is increased and new areas of work appear.
Nuclear icebreaker "Arktika"
It was launched in 1975 and was considered the largest of all existing at that time: its width was 30 meters, length - 148 meters, and side height - more than 17 meters. All conditions were created on the ship, allowing the flight crew and the helicopter to be based. "Arktika" was able to break through the ice, the thickness of which was five meters, and also move at a speed of 18 knots. The unusual color of the vessel (bright red) was also considered a clear difference, which personified a new nautical era.
The nuclear-powered icebreaker Arktika became famous for being the first ship to reach the North Pole. Currently decommissioned and pending decision on its disposal.
"Vaigach"
Shallow-draft nuclear-powered icebreaker of the Taimyr project. A distinctive feature of this icebreaker project is its reduced draft, which makes it possible to serve ships following the Northern Sea Route with calls at the mouths of Siberian rivers.
Captain's bridge
Remote control panels for three propulsion electric motors, also on the remote control there are control devices for the towing device, a control panel for the tug surveillance camera, log indicators, echo sounders, a gyrocompass repeater, VHF radio stations, a control panel for wiper blades and other joystick controls for a xenon searchlight 6 kW.
Machine telegraphs
The main use of the Vaigach is to escort ships with metal from Norilsk and ships with timber and ore from Igarka to Dixon.
The main power plant of the icebreaker consists of two turbogenerators, which will provide a maximum continuous power of about 50,000 hp on the shafts. with., which will force the ice up to two meters thick. With an ice thickness of 1.77 meters, the speed of the icebreaker is 2 knots.
The room of the middle propeller shaft.
The direction of movement of the icebreaker is controlled by an electro-hydraulic steering machine.
Former cinema hall
Now on the icebreaker in each cabin there is a TV with wiring for broadcasting the ship's video channel and satellite TV. And the cinema hall is used for ship-wide meetings and cultural events.
The study of the block cabin of the second chief mate. The duration of the stay of nuclear-powered ships at sea depends on the number of planned works, on average it is 2-3 months. The crew of the icebreaker "Vaigach" consists of 100 people.
Nuclear icebreaker "Taimyr"
The icebreaker is identical to Vaigach. It was built in the late 1980s in Finland at the Wärtsilä shipyard (Wärtsilä Marine Engineering) in Helsinki by order of the Soviet Union. However, the equipment (power plant, etc.) on the ship was installed in the Soviet Union, Soviet-made steel was used. The installation of nuclear equipment was carried out in Leningrad, where the icebreaker's hull was towed in 1988.
"Taimyr" in the dock of the shipyard
"Taimyr" breaks the ice classically: a powerful hull leans on an obstacle from frozen water, destroying it with its own weight. Behind the icebreaker, a channel is formed through which ordinary sea vessels can move.
To improve the ice-breaking capability, the Taimyr is equipped with a pneumatic washing system that prevents the hull from sticking to broken ice and snow. If the laying of the channel is slowed down due to thick ice, the trim and roll systems, which consist of tanks and pumps, enter into the deo. Thanks to these systems, the icebreaker can roll on one side, then on the other, raise the bow or stern higher. From such hull movements, the ice field surrounding the icebreaker is crushed, allowing you to move on.
For painting external structures, decks and bulkheads, imported two-component acrylic-based enamels of increased weather resistance, abrasion and impact resistance are used. The paint is applied in three layers: one layer of primer and two layers of enamel.
The speed of such an icebreaker is 18.5 knots (33.3 km/h)
Repair of propeller-steering complex
Blade installation
Bolts securing the blade to the propeller hub, each of the four blades is attached with nine bolts.
Almost all ships of the Russian icebreaker fleet are equipped with propellers manufactured at the Zvyozdochka plant.
Nuclear icebreaker "Lenin"
This icebreaker, launched on December 5, 1957, became the world's first ship equipped with a nuclear power plant. Its most important differences are a high level of autonomy and power. During the first six years of operation, the nuclear-powered icebreaker covered more than 82,000 nautical miles, navigating over 400 vessels. Later, "Lenin" will be the first of all ships to be north of Severnaya Zemlya.
The icebreaker "Lenin" worked for 31 years and in 1990 was decommissioned and put on eternal parking in Murmansk. Now there is a museum on the icebreaker, work is underway to expand the exposition.
The compartment in which there were two nuclear installations. Two dosimetrists went inside, measuring the level of radiation and controlling the operation of the reactor.
There is an opinion that it was thanks to "Lenin" that the expression "peaceful atom" was fixed. The icebreaker was built at the height of the Cold War, but had absolutely peaceful purposes - the development of the Northern Sea Route and the piloting of civilian ships.
wheelhouse
Main staircase
One of the captains of the AL "Lenin", Pavel Akimovich Ponomarev, was previously the captain of the "Ermak" (1928-1932) - the world's first icebreaker of the Arctic class.
As a bonus, a couple of photos of Murmansk ...
Murmansk
The largest city in the world located above the Arctic Circle. It is located on the rocky eastern coast of the Kola Bay of the Barents Sea.
The basis of the city's economy is the Murmansk seaport - one of the largest ice-free ports in Russia. The port of Murmansk is the home port of the Sedov barque, the largest sailing ship in the world.
"Superstructures" - Icebreakers (documentary film)
