Crushing the ice!

Russia owns the most powerful icebreaker fleet in the world: we have 4 nuclear icebreakers, one container ship and 4 maintenance vessels. This is not a mosquito you sneezed!

The tasks of this powerful flotilla are truly strategic: icebreakers support the stable operation of the Northern Sea Route, as well as provide access to the Far North and the Arctic shelf. They carry Norilsk ore, the Arkhangelsk forest, northern deliveries and spent nuclear fuel.

The United States, Canada, Finland and Sweden have their own icebreaking fleet. But no country in the world has such opportunities to work in the ice, like ours. We were convinced of this by visiting the heart of the Russian nuclear fleet - on the basis of the Federal State Unitary Enterprise Rosatomflot and the icebreaker 50 Years of Victory.

The base of Rostatomflot can be seen from afar: against the background of hills, an arctic "convoy" is built from icebreakers, which are protected by the aircraft carrier Admiral Kuznetsov. Well, here he is with a “humanitarian mission” - he got up to clean feathers before summer work in the Mediterranean Sea.

First of all, Mustafa Kashka, the first deputy general director and chief engineer, invited us to his office and told us what the icebreaker of the future will be and what its captain should be able to do.

“The nuclear icebreaker fleet has gone through three stages of development,” he says. “The first stage is the Lenin icebreaker. The second stage began in the 70s with the launch of the Arctic, Siberia and Russia icebreakers. Then there were two shallow-sitting icebreakers icebreaker. We consider them "shallow-sitting" because they simply have large 75,000 horsepower, and they have 50,000. They were built for river pilotage, primarily for the Yenisei. This stage is connected with the development of the Norilsk industrial region. "

"The third stage that has begun is connected with the development of hydrocarbon energy. Three contracts have now been signed for the construction of three nuclear icebreakers, which are being built at the Baltic Shipyard in St. Petersburg and these will be new generation icebreakers," Kashka said.

Active development of the Northern Sea Route is sometimes associated with global warming and melting ice. But the chief engineer does not quite agree with this: “There has always been a regularity of ice melting. Ice-breaker sailors clearly know that if, for example, the situation in the western sector is harsh, then it will be better in the east, and vice versa. A two-year fluctuation of ice thawing has always existed.”

The development of the Arctic is in fact primarily associated with the improvement of technology.

Let's remember: if earlier the plane dropped tubes with cards on the ice, now satellite electronic cards allow us to count every walrus on the bench. Technologies have changed regarding the knowledge of ice, its impact on the hulls of ships. “For us ice-breakers, it’s important which channel is left behind so that the rear-going vessel doesn’t hit the fragments. After all, the ice-breaker crushes with mass.”

Of course, Mustafa Kashka is right - there are dozens of types of ice alone: sea, spongy, glacier, ice fields, frost and even ice lard!

Why is a nuclear installation placed on icebreakers? It is interesting that in addition to submarines, two options for installing a nuclear installation were also initially considered - at whaling bases (then fishing was allowed) and on ships. As a result, we settled on ships. Nuclear installation is needed where long-term autonomy is needed.

“My personal record is the year of autonomous stay at sea. We went to sea on the Arctic icebreaker on May 3, 1999 and first entered the port on May 4, 2000, there were two crew changes. Where there is a need for more than 30,000 horses and where autonomy is required; nuclear power is most effective. "

For example, a ship with a capacity of 75,000 hp equipped with a diesel engine would need 350 to 400 tons of fossil fuels per day. That is, a good tanker would be burned per month. But, in any case, the numbers are not the point.

What is required of the captain in the first place, and who is worthy to go and command the atomic giant, breaking ice?

Previously, there was a mark in the description of sailors: "Marine qualities: good." Everything was evaluated, including work in a closed team, but the basic requirement is the will and ability to work with people.

On board the icebreaker "50 Years of Victory" we are met by Dmitry Viktorovich Lobusov, the real captain, the atomic sea wolf.
He shows us the whole ship - from the captain’s bridge to his atomic heart.

"50 years of Victory" - the world's largest nuclear-powered icebreaker (project 10521) and the pride of Russia. It was founded under the name "Ural" on October 4, 1989 at the Baltic Plant in Leningrad, but it was put into operation only in 2007. Then there was simply not enough money for the construction ...

On February 1, 2007, the icebreaker entered the Gulf of Finland for sea trials, which lasted two weeks. The Russian flag was hoisted on March 23, 2007, and on April 11 the icebreaker arrived at the permanent home port of Murmansk.

July 30, 2013 the ship participated in the hundredth expedition to the North Pole. 85 times the top of the planet was visited by Russian icebreakers, 15 times - foreign.

There were 118 vessels at the North Pole. And "50 years of Victory" - among them.

This Arctic-class icebreaker is not just handsome, but also a strong man: its capacity is 75,000 horsepower, and its displacement is 25,168 tons.

Length - 159.6 meters, width - 30 meters, freeboard height - 17.2 meters, and average draft is 11 meters.
Like airplanes, ships also have their registration numbers, by which they can be tracked on a marine fly-radar.

The official call sign of the icebreaker "50 Years of Victory": Uniform Golf Yankee Uniform.

Since the ship constantly maneuvers in the ice, there are always 3 people on guard: the watch sailor, the watch assistant and the senior assistant captain. There are three of them on the icebreaker, while the captain can have only one on the whole fleet.
We were a few days before the icebreaker went to sea, so for now it is empty.

Chopping outside.

A machine telegraph is a device for transferring commands from changing the mode of operation of an engine from the wheelhouse of a vessel to the engine room.

The handles control the rotational speed of the screws, each has 41 positions - 20 forward, 20 back and stop.

Transferring the screws from Full Forward to Full Back (reversing) takes only 11 seconds.

Pay attention to the curtain rail for around the place of the watch assistant, where he makes entries in the log.

When the icebreaker goes at night, the lights on the bridge are not turned on so that it can be seen what is happening outside. Therefore, the working space is fenced off with a curtain so that the lamp light does not interfere.

Radio room.

The estimated thickness of ice, which can be overcome by a capacity of 75 thousand horses is 2.8 meters, that is, it crushes even perennial pack ice into crumbs. The icebreaker uses a spoon-shaped form of the bow tip, which allows breaking the ice so that it does not interfere with the vessels being conducted: the icebreaker, as it were, piles on or “floats” onto the ice and simply breaks it.

The icebreaker's side thickness is the thickest among the Arctic-class icebreakers - 5 centimeters (others are half a centimeter smaller).

Its keel is partially coated with a layer of stainless steel to reduce corrosion and friction.

Ballast compartments are indicated in blue, where you can pump water and quickly pump it from stern to bow and back. This is necessary if the icebreaker gets stuck in the ice. Then, by pumping ballast, the ship is "rocked" like an ax stuck in a log, and it is freed from the ice chains.

The control room for nuclear reactors is a small nuclear power plant.

Reactors themselves could not be removed.

The nuclear icebreaker can be called a steamboat in all seriousness! Because it works for a couple.

A nuclear reactor heats dirty water, which transfers heat to “clean” water through a heat exchanger, it turns into superheated steam, which turns the turbines. Turbines spin generators that generate electricity. And it, among other things, goes to electric motors that turn the propellers. The ship has two nuclear reactors, the total power of the power plant: 75 000 hp

And this icebreaker is capable of breaking ice with screws. If you can’t get through in any way, then the icebreaker unfolds stern and simply cuts the ice, like fresh carrots. “Returning back along the canal, you can see the ice milled as a half pipe. For the entire fleet, the propeller’s contact with the ice is outrageous, and we do it,” says the captain.
Here, for example, is one propeller blade with a person for scale.

And in the white cylinder is a large inflatable boat and a supply of survival equipment for several days.

Power and capabilities are also impressive: “We will walk along 50-centimeter ice like clear water,” says Dmitry Lobusov.

Bears sometimes come to the ship. Once, "50 Years of Victory" stood in the ice for 40 minutes, waiting for the frightened bear to bathe in the melted lake and go out of the way.

In addition to the main task of driving caravans in the Arctic seas, he also carries tourists to the North Pole, visiting the Franz Josef Land conservation archipelago.

On board the cruise for tourists there is a restaurant, a gym, a sauna, a swimming pool, a library and a music room. There is a satellite TV system.

The bar is located under the bridge, a floor below, and tourists usually spend their free time here.

One of the cabins, one or two passengers can live here, but then someone will have to sleep on the sofa.

A trip to the North Pole is available to everyone, but it costs a lot of money: today about $ 30 thousand.
The price includes accommodation, meals, entertainment (except drinks at the bar).

The ship has an environmental compartment specially equipped for waste disposal.

There is also a desalination station on the icebreaker, which makes the ship completely independent of fresh water supplies.

Each day, up to 120 cubic meters of distilled pure water can be produced. Half goes to technical needs, half is artificially prepared for drinking (by mixing the composition of mineral salts, etc.). Thus, on board no one restricts passengers in the consumption of water.

Turbines, each of which rotates simultaneously three generators generating alternating current.

Behind them are rectifiers.

At the bottom is the propeller shaft, which turns a huge electric motor. All this is located below the waterline.

The icebreaker has its own repair shop with a full range of metalworking machines, carpentry, etc.

Once the craftsmen were able to carve a small part for a broken helicopter, thereby saving several weeks.

Own laundry room.

There is also a chemical laboratory designed to monitor the water regime, drinking water, sample analysis, control of fuel and oils, etc.

Looking at this steel giant, it's hard to believe that the first icebreaker was wooden: City Ice Boat No. 1 was built in 1837 to clean ice in the Philadelphia harbor. Then there was the Russian towing ship Pilot, the legendary first Arctic Ermak, and other heroes of the conquerors of ice.

In total, from 1959 to 1991, eight nuclear-powered icebreakers and one nuclear-powered lighter carrier were built in the Soviet Union. From 1991 to the present, two more nuclear-powered icebreakers were built in Russia: Yamal (1993) and 50 years of Victory (2007). Three more nuclear-powered icebreakers with a displacement of more than 33 thousand tons are under construction, ice penetration - almost three meters. The first of them will be ready by 2017.

It is almost impossible to visit the “50 Years of Victory” in the port. Excursions are not carried out. But there are "open door days" in Atomflot, you need to submit a collective application, monitor their website and social networks.