Yakutia (nuclear icebreaker)

History

2024: Access to the Gulf of Finland

The universal nuclear icebreaker Yakutia, the fourth vessel of project 22220, entered the Gulf of Finland for final sea trials in December 2024. The icebreaker is scheduled for commissioning on December 28, 2024, said Vladimir Panov, special representative of the state corporation Rosatom for the development of the Arctic.

According to TASS, the Yakutia nuclear-powered ship is being built at the Baltic Plant by order of the Rosatom state corporation. The project was developed at the Iceberg Central Design Bureau. The laying of the vessel took place on May 26, 2020, and launching on November 22, 2022. Within a few weeks, the Baltic Plant team, together with contractors and employees of various departments of the United Shipbuilding Corporation, will check the operation of the icebreaker mechanisms and equipment.

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Baltic Plant

General Director of the Baltic Plant Alexander Konovalov stressed that factory sea trials will sum up the results of the four-year work of shipbuilders. Not only the systems and mechanisms of the vessel will be checked, but also the quality of work - this is necessary to ensure that the icebreaker does not fail on the Northern Sea Route.

Yakutia is equipped with a two-reactor nuclear plant RITM-200 with a thermal capacity of 175 MW each, which is 25 MW higher than the capacity of previously used plants. The new reactors are lighter and more compact than the previous ones, and their service life is 40 years. The capacity of the vessel on the shafts reaches 60 MW. With a length of 173.3 meters, the icebreaker is able to overcome ice up to 3 meters thick at a speed of 2 knots, and on clean water to reach speeds of up to 22 knots.

Yakutia, assigned to the port of Murmansk, will become the third serial icebreaker of project 22220 after the commissioned Arctic, Siberia and Ural. At different stages of construction there are three more vessels - Chukotka, Leningrad and Stalingrad. These vessels will replace the outdated icebreakers Taimyr, Yamal and Vaigach. A feature of the project is the possibility of changing precipitation, which allows ships to operate both at sea and in the estuaries.

In 2023, 36.25 million tons of cargo were transported along the Northern Sea Route, as Vladimir Panov said. According to his forecasts, a new record is expected in 2024 - approximately 37.6 million tons. In total, project 22220 involves the construction of seven universal nuclear icebreakers.^[1]

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