On April 15, Atomflot, the nuclear-powered icebreaker company of Rosatom, officially launched the commercial maiden voyage of the new nuclear-powered icebreaker Yakutia.
Yakutia icebreaker was built by Baltic Shipyard and will initially be deployed in the Kara Sea to provide support for cargo ships passing through the Yenisei River. The ship was laid keel in May 2020, launched in November 2022, and began sea trials on December 1, 2024. After completing the final series of necessary sea trials at the end of March this year, the vessel is now stationed in Murmansk’s home port.
It is the fourth of the 22220 nuclear-powered icebreakers. The development of this series of icebreakers began in the 1990s to update Russia’s aging icebreaker fleet. At that time, almost all icebreakers were still using technology from the 1960s. It is worth noting that after continuous design optimization, the Type 22220 icebreaker eventually became the largest and most advanced nuclear-powered icebreaker in the world today.
The three nuclear-powered icebreakers in this series include the Arktika, Sibir and Ural, which were put into service in 2020, 2021 and 2022 respectively.
Yakutia is said to be different from the previous three icebreakers because it has implemented “large-scale import substitution measures”. In addition to delays caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, the imported equipment and accessories of the icebreaker were replaced with Russian domestic equipment and accessories. Western countries stopped exporting these equipment and accessories to Russia after the Russo-Ukrainian war.
As the world’s largest and most powerful nuclear-powered icebreaker, Type 22220 has a design life of 40 years. Yakutia has a full load displacement of 33,540 tons and breaks ice continuously up to 3 meters thick. It is 173 meters long, 34 meters wide and can reach speeds of up to 22 knots. The hull is made of durable, corrosion-resistant steel to prevent icing and ice adhesion. Its nuclear power plant consists of two RITM-200 pressurized water nuclear reactors, each rated at 175 MW.
Russia has the largest number of icebreakers in the world, with most advanced technology, and the greatest capacity for polar operations. In addition to the 22220, Russia’s new generation of heavy nuclear-powered icebreakers, the 10510, has been under construction at Zvezda since 2020, with the first vessel, the Rossiya, scheduled to enter service in 2030.