''Arktika'' ( rus, А́рктика, p=ˈarktʲɪkə; literally:
Arctic
The Arctic ( or ) is a polar regions of Earth, polar region located at the northernmost part of Earth. The Arctic consists of the Arctic Ocean, adjacent seas, and parts of Canada (Yukon, Northwest Territories, Nunavut), Danish Realm (Greenla ...
) is a retired
nuclear-powered icebreaker
A nuclear-powered icebreaker is an icebreaker with an onboard nuclear power plant that produces power for the vessel's propulsion system. , Russia is the only country that builds and operates nuclear-powered icebreakers, having built a number of ...
of the
Soviet
The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, it was nominally a federal union of fifteen nation ...
(now
Russia
Russia (, , ), or the Russian Federation, is a List of transcontinental countries, transcontinental country spanning Eastern Europe and North Asia, Northern Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, largest country in the ...
n)
''Arktika'' class. In service from 1975 to 2008, she was the first surface ship to reach the
North Pole
The North Pole, also known as the Geographic North Pole or Terrestrial North Pole, is the point in the Northern Hemisphere where the Earth's axis of rotation meets its surface. It is called the True North Pole to distinguish from the Mag ...
, a feat achieved on August 17, 1977, during an expedition dedicated to the 60th anniversary of the
October Revolution
The October Revolution,. officially known as the Great October Socialist Revolution. in the Soviet Union, also known as the Bolshevik Revolution, was a revolution in Russia led by the Bolshevik Party of Vladimir Lenin that was a key moment ...
.
The ''Arktika'' is a double-hulled icebreaker; the outer hull is thick, the inner thick, with the space in between utilized for water
ballasting. At the strongest point, the cast steel prow is ) thick and bow-shaped to aid in icebreaking, the curve applying greater dynamic force to fracture the ice than a straight bow would. The maximum ice thickness it can break through is approximately . ''Arktika'' also has an air bubbling system (ABS) which delivers 24 m
3/s of steam from jets below the surface to further aid in the breakup of ice.
[Pike, J. Project 10520 Arktika/ Global Security.Org. http://www.globalsecurity.org/military/world/russia/10520.htm]
The ship is divided by eight bulkheads, providing nine watertight compartments, and can undergo short towing operations when needed. It also comes equipped with a helicopter pad and hangar at the aft of the ship.
Mil Mi-2
The Mil Mi-2 (NATO reporting name Hoplite) is a small, three rotor blade Soviet-designed multi-purpose helicopter developed by the Mil Moscow Helicopter Plant designed in the early 1960s, and produced exclusively by WSK "PZL-Świdnik" in Polan ...
"Hoplite", dubbed ''ptichka'' (
Russian
Russian(s) refers to anything related to Russia, including:
*Russians (, ''russkiye''), an ethnic group of the East Slavic peoples, primarily living in Russia and neighboring countries
*Rossiyane (), Russian language term for all citizens and peo ...
for "little bird"), or
Kamov Ka-27
The Kamov Ka-27 (NATO reporting name 'Helix') is a military helicopter developed for the Soviet Navy, and currently in service in various countries including Russia, Ukraine, Vietnam, China, South Korea, and India. Variants include the Ka-29 a ...
"Helix" helicopters are used for scouting expeditions to find safe routes through the
ice floes
An ice floe () is a large pack of floating ice often defined as a flat piece at least 20 m across at its widest point, and up to more than 10 km across. Drift ice is a floating field of sea ice composed of several ice floes. They may cau ...
.
[Walston, O. (1994), Arktika. London: Reed Consumer Ltd.]
Construction
Construction of the ship began in the
Baltic Shipyard
The OJSC Baltic Shipyard (''Baltiysky Zavod'', formerly Shipyard 189 named after Grigoriy Ordzhonikidze) (russian: Балтийский завод имени С. Орджоникидзе) is one of the oldest shipyards in Russia and is part o ...
in
Leningrad
Saint Petersburg ( rus, links=no, Санкт-Петербург, a=Ru-Sankt Peterburg Leningrad Petrograd Piter.ogg, r=Sankt-Peterburg, p=ˈsankt pʲɪtʲɪrˈburk), formerly known as Petrograd (1914–1924) and later Leningrad (1924–1991), i ...
on July 3, 1971.
[Olagaard, P. Reistad, O. (April 2006). Russian Nuclear Power Plants for Marine Applications] Sea trials completed successfully on December 17, 1975. For further information on the ship's design, construction and propulsion system, see .
Renaming controversy
In 1982, she was rechristened ''Leonid Brezhnev'' in honour of
Leonid Brezhnev
Leonid Ilyich Brezhnev; uk, links= no, Леонід Ілліч Брежнєв, . (19 December 1906– 10 November 1982) was a Soviet Union, Soviet politician who served as General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, Gener ...
, the
General Secretary
Secretary is a title often used in organizations to indicate a person having a certain amount of authority, power, or importance in the organization. Secretaries announce important events and communicate to the organization. The term is derived ...
of the
Central Committee of the
Communist Party of the Soviet Union
"Hymn of the Bolshevik Party"
, headquarters = 4 Staraya Square, Moscow
, general_secretary = Vladimir Lenin (first) Mikhail Gorbachev (last)
, founded =
, banned =
, founder = Vladimir Lenin
, newspaper ...
from 1964 until his death in 1982. In 1986 the name reverted to ''Arktika'', according to some accounts because the ship's crew disliked the new name and refused to respond to radio messages unless the ship was referred to as ''Arktika''. Within a week of the strike, the name was changed back.
[Walston, O. (1994), Arktika. London: Reed Consumer Ltd.] Another explanation is that the original name change had been due to an administrative mixup, and the name ''Leonid Brezhnev'' had never been supposed to apply to ''Arktika'' at all, but had been intended for a different ship.
Service history
The vessel was in service from 1975 to 2008.
''Arktika'' was retired for several years, but was repaired in the late 1990s.
Originally designed for 100,000 hours of reactor life, ''Arktika''s service life was prolonged another 50,000 hours in 2000, and another 25,000 hours after that, adding eight years to a 25-year planned service life. The life extension was accomplished by means of replacing critical equipment to allow the safe and continued operation of the
nuclear plant
A nuclear power plant (NPP) is a thermal power station in which the heat source is a nuclear reactor. As is typical of thermal power stations, heat is used to generate steam that drives a steam turbine connected to a generator that produces ele ...
. On May 17, 2000, a conference of Russian engineers, scientists, and government officials took place on board ''Arktika'' after her first service extension. The extension cost only $4 million, compared to the $30–50 million cost of a new nuclear icebreaker, and proved to be a successful endeavor. The conference therefore concluded that the lifetimes of Russian nuclear icebreakers could be successfully extended to 175,000 hours, and possibly more.
On April 9, 2007, a fire broke out on ''Arktika''. The fire caused minor damage to three cabins and knocked out an electricity-distribution panel. The nuclear reactor was not damaged. There were no injuries. The icebreaker was in the
Kara Sea
The Kara Sea (russian: Ка́рское мо́ре, ''Karskoye more'') is a marginal sea, separated from the Barents Sea to the west by the Kara Strait and Novaya Zemlya, and from the Laptev Sea to the east by the Severnaya Zemlya archipelago. ...
when the blaze erupted, and was sent to
Murmansk
Murmansk (Russian: ''Мурманск'' lit. "Norwegian coast"; Finnish: ''Murmansk'', sometimes ''Muurmanski'', previously ''Muurmanni''; Norwegian: ''Norskekysten;'' Northern Sámi: ''Murmánska;'' Kildin Sámi: ''Мурман ланнҍ'') ...
.
Withdrawal
After 33 years of reliable icebreaking, having become the first surface ship to reach the North Pole in 1977, and the first civilian ship to spend more than a year at sea without making port in 2000, and covering more than a million
nautical mile
A nautical mile is a unit of length used in air, marine, and space navigation, and for the definition of territorial waters. Historically, it was defined as the meridian arc length corresponding to one minute ( of a degree) of latitude. Today ...
s by 2005, ''Arktika'' was retired in October 2008. She is docked at
Atomflot
FSUE Atomflot (russian: ФГУП «Атомфлот») is a Russian company and service base that maintains the world's only fleet of nuclear-powered icebreakers. Atomflot is part of the Rosatom group, and is based in the city of Murmansk.
, the ...
, the nuclear base and dock in Murmansk, away from the main docks, where she will remain until policies can be drawn up to dismantle her. In the meantime, she is a subject of important research, focused mainly on how to further extend the service life of the other ''Arktika''-class icebreakers. There have been calls for the ship to be converted to a museum, either in Murmansk or St. Petersburg. An earlier Soviet nuclear icebreaker,
''Lenin'', is already a museum ship in Murmansk.
"Arktika" could become museum
''Barents Observer'', August 17, 2012
Gallery
References
External links
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Arktika (Icebreaker)
1972 ships
Icebreakers of Russia
Icebreakers of the Soviet Union
Nuclear-powered icebreakers
Ships built at the Baltic Shipyard
North Pole