Russia: Nuclear-Powered Icebreakers

To return to the main Civilian Naval Reactors entry, see the Civilian-Use Naval Reactors file.
For more recent developments, please see the General Naval Developments file. 

The mission of Russia's icebreaker fleet is to ensure navigation in the eastern part of the Severnyy Morskoy Put (also known as Sevmorput, or Northern Sea Way), the sea line connecting Murmansk with other Russian Arctic ports, including Petropavlovsk-Kamchatskiy, Kamchatka.[1]  During winter, one icebreaker can clear a passage for two to three ships, and up to fifteen ships in the summer.[2]  The Murmansk Shipping Company (MSC) operates Russia's icebreaker fleet, which consists of three diesel-powered icebreakers, seven nuclear-powered icebreakers, and a nuclear-powered transport ship, for a total of fifteen nuclear reactors.[3]  The Russian nuclear-powered commercial fleet consists of five 54 MW icebreakers of the Arktika-class (Arktika, Sibir, Rossiya, Sovetskiy Soyuz, and Yamal), two 32.5 MW Taymyr-class river icebreakers (Taymyr and Vaygach), and one 29.42 MW Sevmorput transport ship.[4, 5] The Sibir is not currently in service, but may be brought back from its reserve status in the future. As of December 2004, the Rossiya, Taymyr, and Vaygach were in refit.[10]

The design of nuclear reactors for icebreakers began in 1970.  The Arktika-class is powered by two OK-900A reactors, while the Taymyr-class icebreakers and the Sevmorput have one KLT-40 reactor apiece. The icebreaker reactors are bigger than the reactors in nuclear submarines.  The fuel used in OK-900A reactors is enriched to 45-75% uranium-235, and each reactor core holds 241 fuel assemblies, including 200 kg of uranium-235.[11]  The fuel in KLT-40 reactors is enriched up to 90%; it too contains 241 fuel assemblies, with a total of approximately 150kg of uranium-235.[12] Fuel is replaced every three to four years, and it takes approximately 45 days to refuel a nuclear-powered icebreaker.[3]  Generally, one reactor acts as the primary propulsion, and the second operates at low power.[4]  Water in the pressurized closed water circuit is heated to 300 to 400 degrees Celsius to produce steam.  The steam enters a system of four steam generators per reactor core.  These generators run the turbines, which run the propellers.  Because it is a closed water circuit, this water is recirculated to the steam generators.  The cooling system of the icebreaker reactors is specially-designed to use cold Arctic sea water.[3]

The Atomflot facility, located just north of the city of Murmansk, serves as the base for nuclear-powered icebreakers, and repairs are completed at dry docks in the bay adjacent to the center of the city of Murmansk.  Major repairs to the icebreaker reactors are completed at the Zvezdochka shipyard in Severodvinsk.[6]  The first icebreaker, the Lenin, was decommissioned in 1989.  The icebreaker Arktika was to have been decommissioned before the year 2000, but in May 2000 its service life was extended from 100,000 to 175,000 hours.[9]  Russia has also begun to construct new icebreakers.  In October 2005, the 50 Let Pobedy (50 Years of Victory), under construction at the Baltic Shipyard since December 1993, was finally launched.[13,14]  The icebreaker, which is powered by an OK-900A reactor, is scheduled to enter service in 2006. Murmansk Shipping Company has called for construction of additional vessels.  According to its general director, Aleksandr Medvedev, the Aysberg Central Design Bureau and the Central Scientific Research Institute of the Maritime Fleet (TsNIIMF) have designed a new 110 MW icebreaker that could be used to enable 150,000 metric ton ships to cross from Western Europe to the Pacific. In December 2004, the cost of constructing the lead ship of this type was estimated at $430 million. Medvedev called for construction of an additional four 60 MW icebreakers (costing some $235 million apiece), with construction of the first to be initiated in 2008.[10]

As a result of privatization, the Murmansk Shipping Company (MSC) is now responsible for all the costs of operation, even though the icebreakers may still be considered federal property. The construction of nuclear-powered icebreakers costs 60 to 70% more than diesel-powered icebreakers; however, because of their capability to operate longer without port calls for refueling, total operational costs are almost even.[4, 7]  While Atomflot was operating at a loss throughout the 1990s, the Russian government has since allowed it to charge higher rates, and it has recently become profitable.[15]

Three factors are intricately linked to the future economic health of the icebreaker fleet: the amount of cargo, the tourist industry, and the problems with the storage and transport of radioactive waste.  Most nuclear icebreakers contain a sauna, swimming pool, bar, restaurants, cinema, and gym on board, and as of 1989, icebreakers have transported wealthy tourists to the North Pole.  In 1994, MSC predicted an income of $450,000 from icebreaker tourism.   In 2004, MSC in fact received $2.8 million for renting out the Yamal for two tourist trips; however, the Russian Accounts Chamber criticized the company for allowing most profits to accrue overseas:  the tourists actually paid a total of $10.8 million for their tickets on the two voyages. The legality of the contracts was therefore disputed by the oversight body, which pledged to continue monitoring MSC management of Atomflot in the future.[15]

Low-level solid radioactive waste from the icebreaker fleet is currently stored on land, incinerated, or stored on the service ships Lepse and Volodarskiy, and spent nuclear fuel is stored on the Lepse, Imandra, and Lotta.  Dealing with the spent nuclear fuel is a much greater concern than low-level radioactive waste, due to its inherent proliferation risk.  Atomflot has received assistance in constructing new spent fuel storage facilities and new physical protection measures at the shipyard and on board nuclear ships from Norway, Sweden, the United Kingdom and the United States. For more information on these assistance projects, see the Atomflot file. Please see the Service Ships Table for more information on these vessels. For information on icebreaker developments, see the Russia: General Naval Developments file.  Earlier developments are available in the Archived General Civilian Naval Reactor Developments and Atomflot files.
Sources:
[1] Thomas B. Cochran, Robert S. Norris, and Oleg Bukharin, Making the Russian Bomb: From Stalin to Yeltsin, (Boulder: Westview Press, 1995), p. 240.
[2] "'Bad Guys' of Arctic Seas Say Fleet Safe," Russia Today, online edition, http://www.russiatoday.com/, 20 October 1997.
[3] Thomas Nilsen and Nils Bøhmer, "Sources to radioactive contamination in Murmansk and Arkhangel´sk counties," The Bellona Foundation, http://www.bellona.no/e/russia/murmark/index.htm, 1994, section 3.
[4] Georgiy Kostev, Nuclear Safety Challenges in the Operation and Dismantlement of Russian Nuclear Submarines, (Moscow: Committee for Critical Technologies and Non-Proliferation, 1997), p. 46.
[5] Nuclear Weapons Databook III, Copyright 1993, NRDC, Used By Permission.
[6] "Nuclear Wastes in the Arctic: An Analysis of Arctic and Other Regional Impacts From Soviet Nuclear Contamination," OTA-ENV-623 (Washington, DC: U.S. Government Printing Office, September 1995), pp. 122, 128, 130.
[7] RINACO Plus, "Russian Industry Analysis: Sea Shipping," July 1995, http://www.fe.msk.ru/infomarket/rinacoplus/sea.html.
[8] Thomas Nilsen, "Lukoil goes nuclear," Bellona Foundation Website, http://www.bellona.no/e/, 1 December 1998.
[9] "Prodlen resurs raboty ledokola 'Arktika,'" Regions. ru, http://www.regions.ru, 24 May 2000.{Updated 8/13/2001 CC}
[10] Statement by Aleksandr Medvedev, Murmansk Shipping Company general director, at a Russian parliamentary hearing in 2004, as published in "Parlamentskiye slushaniya," Morskiye vesti Rossii, 20 June 2004.
[11] Nikolay Melnikov, Vladimir Konukhin, Vadim Naumov, Pavel Amosov, Sergey Gusak, Andrey Naumov, Yuriy Katkov, Yuriy Smirnov, Aleksandr Orlov, and Yuriy Rybin, "Dolgovremmennoye bezopasnoye khraneniye otrabotavshego yadernogo topliva sudovykh yadernykh ustanovok v Severo-Zapadnom regione Rossii" (Apatity: Gornyy institut Kolskogo nauchnogo tsentra Rossiyskoy akademii nauk Rossiya, date unknown), p. 4.
[12] Ole Reistad, Morten Bremer Mærli, and Nils Bøhmer, "Russian Naval Nuclear Fuel and Reactors: Dangerous Unknowns," Nonproliferation Review, Vol. 12, No. 1 (March 2005), pp. 163-197.
[13] "Trials of Atomic Icebreaker 50 Let Pobedy Began at Baltiysky Zavod," Baltic Shipyard website, http://www.bz.ru/e020_072.htm, 31 October 2005.
[14] "Sudba ledokola '50 let Pobedy,'" Kommersant, 1 December 2004.
[15] "Otchet o proverke finansovo-khozyaystvennoy deyatelnosti i effektivnosti ispolzovaniya federalnoy sobstvennosti otkrytogo aktsionernogo obshchestva 'Murmanskoye morskoye parokhodstvo'," in Byulleten No. 6, 2005, Russian Accounts Chamber Web Site, http://www.ach.gov.ru/bulletins/2005/6-7.php. {Updated 12/8/2005 CC}

Page last updated 8 December 2005
For more recent developments, see the General Naval Developments file.
For archived developments see the Archived Civilian Naval Reactor Developments file.

Comments or questions? E-mail Cristina Chuen:  cristina.chuenATmiis.edu.

This material is produced independently for NTI by the James Martin Center for Nonproliferation Studies at the Monterey Institute of International Studies and does not necessarily reflect the opinions of and has not been independently verified by NTI or its directors, officers, employees, agents. Copyright © 2010 by MIIS.

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