Operator Rosatomflot, Rosatom In service 2018 (planned) Launched 16 June 2016 Weight 33,540 tons | Laid down 5 November 2013 Construction started 5 November 2013 Length 173 m | |
Class and type LK-60Ya-class icebreaker | ||
NS Arktika (Russian: Арктика) is a nuclear-powered icebreaker of the Russian LK-60Ya class icebreakers.
Construction of the ship began in the Baltic Shipyard (Baltiysky Zavod), a subsidiary of USC (United Shipbuilding Corporation), in St. Petersburg on 5 November 2013 and the ship was launched on 16 June 2016. For further information on the ship's design, construction and propulsion system, see LK-60Ya class icebreaker.
Designed for 40 years of reactor life, Arktika will require refuelling every seven years with less than 20% uranium-235 enriched fuel. The new icebreaker is able to navigate through ice up to almost three meters thick. This vessel is designed to operate in the cold Arctic waters, it cannot traverse to the Antarctic: in the course of such a voyage, the temperature in some compartments would rise to 50 degrees Celsius even at low reactor power settings. The cost of one RITM-200 reactor is 8 billion rubles (US$0.13 billion).
On 2 September 2016, Baltic Shipyard installed the first RITM-200 nuclear reactor steam generator and twenty days later completed the installation of the second RITM-200 nuclear reactor. Each reactor has a 175 MW thermal capacity.