User:Danfmurphy/DanfmurphyDraft

History

On July 3, 1971, construction began on a conceptual design of a larger nuclear icebreaker, dubbed Arktika, in the Baltic Shipyard in St. Petersburg. Four years later, on December 17, 1975, Moscow and Leningrad received radio messages informing them that sea trials had been completed successfully. The newest and largest nuclear icebreaker at the time was ready for the Arctic. In 1982, it was officially christened Leonid Brezhnev in honor of the General Secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union from 1964 until his death in 1982. In 1968, the crew of the Leonid Brezhnev, went on a communication strike. Disliking the name of the ship, they refused to respond to any radio message unless the ship was referred to as Arktika. Within a week of the strike, the name was changed back to Arktika.

Construction

The leading vessel in Russia’s second nuclear icebreaker class, Arktika became the classification name for four icebreakers to follow: the Sibir in 1977, Rossia in 1985, Sovetskiy Soyus in 1989, and the Yamal in 1992. The Arktika is a double-hulled ice breaker; the outer hull is 48 mm (1.89 in) thick, the inner 25 mm (0.98 in) thick, with the space in between utilized for water ballasting. At the strongest point, the cast steel prow is 50 cm (19 ¾ in) thick and bow shaped to aid in icebreaking, the curve applying greater and more dynamic force to fracture the ice than a straight bow would. Maximum ice thickness it can break through is approximately 5 meters (16.4 ft). Common to many icebreakers, the Arktika also has an Air Bubbling System (ABS) which delivers 24 m3/s of steam from jets 9m (29.5 ft) below the surface to further aid in the breakup of ice. The ship is divided by eight bulkheads, providing nine watertight compartments in the event of disaster and can undergo short towing operations when needed. It also comes equipped with a helicopter pad and hangar on the aft of the ship. Mil Mi-2 Hoplite, dubbed ptichka-Russian for little bird, or Kamov Ka-27 Helix helicopter, used for scouting expeditions to find safe routes through the ice flows.

OK-900A Reactors

Between September of 1967 and April of 1970, the NS Lenin (nuclear icebreaker), precursor of the Arktika and first ever nuclear propelled ice breaker, pulled in Murmansk to have its three OK-150 reactors, capable of 900 MW each, replaced with two OK-900 reactors, capable of 159 MW each. The Arktika and the entire Arktika class icebreakers are outfitted with two OK-900A reactors, which deliver 171 MW each. Each reactor is contained in its own closed compartment and weighs 160 tonnes. They are shielded by water, steel, and high density concrete, and ambient radiation is monitored throughout the ship by 86 sensors. The reactors were originally fueled by a 90% enriched, zirconium-clad, Uranium fuel. Those reactors still in operation today now use a 20%-90% enriched with 60% average enrichment uranium dispersed in an Aluminum matrix. The chain reaction can be stopped in 0.6 seconds by the full insertion of safety rods. The Arktika consumes up to 200 grams of fuel a day when breaking ice. There are 500 kg of Uranium isotopes in each reactor, allowing for up to four years between changing reactor cores. The used cores are extracted and replaced in Murmansk, the spent fuel reprocessed and waste disposed of at a Radioactive waste plant.

Propulsion

Both the OK-150 and OK-900(A) are Pressurized water reactors, meaning that cooling water is continually pumped under pressure through the reactor to remove heat, keeping the cores and the reactor cool. The heated water is pumped from the reactor to a Boiler (4 boilers per reactor), where it transfers its heat into another body of water, producing steam at a rate of 30 kg/cm3. Each set of four boilers drives two Steam turbines, which turn three Dynamos. One kilovolt of Direct current is then delivered to three double-wound motors directly connected to the Propeller, providing an average screw velocity of 120-180 rpm. Five auxiliary steam turbines are tied into the plant to provide electricity, turning dynamos which develop 30 MW. Three fixed-pitch propellers provide the Arktika with its thrust, power, and maneuverability. The starboard and amidships propellers turn clockwise while the port turns counter clockwise to compensate. Each propeller sits at the end of a 20 meter (65.6 ft) shaft and has four blades, which weigh seven tons and are attached by nine bolts to the hub which is 5.7 meters (18.7 ft) in diameter and weighs 50 tonnes. The Arktika also carries four spare blades along with the appropriate diving equipment and tools so that propeller repairs may be made at sea; the operation can take anywhere from 1-4 days depending on the extent of the damage. Each propeller can deliver a propulsive force of 480 tons with 18-43 MW (25,000 shaft horsepower) [totals: 55.3 MW (75,000 shp)]. This amounts to a maximum speed of 22 knots (44 km/h, 27 mph) on open water, full speed of 19 knots (35 km/h, 22 mph), and an average speed of 3 knots (5.5 km/h, 3.5 mph) while icebreaking 2-3m thick ice.

Service Life Prolonged

Originally designed for 100,000 hrs of reactor life, the Arktika’s service life was prolonged another 50,000 hrs in 2000, and another 25,000 hrs 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. On May 17, 2000, a conference of Russian engineers, scientists, and government officials took place on board the Arktika after her first service extension. The extension cost only $4 million dollars, while a new nuclear icebreaker would be $30-50 million, and proved to be a successful endeavor. The conference concluded thus that the lifetimes of Russian nuclear icebreakers could be successfully extended to 175,000 hrs, and possibly more.

Decommissioned

After 33 years of reliable icebreaking, being the first civilian nuclear surface ship to reach the North Pole in 1977, spend more than a year at sea without making port in 2000, and covering more than a million Nautical miles by 2005, the Arktika was retired in October of 2008. It is docked at Atomflot, the nuclear base and dock in Murmansk, 1 ½ km (0.9 miles) away from the main docks, where it will remain until policies can be drawn up to dismantle it. In the meantime, it is a subject of important research, focused mainly on how to further extend the service life of the other Arktika class icebreakers.