Up next in 10
Russia operates the world’s only fleet of nuclear-powered icebreakers, giving it unmatched control over the Arctic. These massive ships carve paths through frozen seas, keeping vital trade routes like the Northern Sea Route open year-round. But how do they work? And why does Russia invest so heavily in them? This is a Izvestia Feature, modified by AA in certain places.
In this video, we explore:
✅ The nuclear icebreakers in Russia
✅ How nuclear reactors power these ships
✅ Why the Arctic matters for global trade and geopolitics
✅ The Crew of these giant ships
From Cold War ambitions to modern-day Arctic dominance, this is the full story of Russia’s nuclear icebreaker fleet.
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0:00
[Music]
0:00
We face such challenges all the time.
0:02
One of the most serious was associated
0:04
with the creation of nuclear weapons
0:05
exactly 80 years ago. It was then that
0:08
our country made an incredible truly
0:10
revolutionary breakthrough. In the
0:12
shortest possible time, we implemented
0:14
our atomic project which made it
0:16
possible to create a reliable shield
0:18
undercover to which we live today. But
0:20
that's not the only thing that's
0:22
important. It was then that we first
0:24
began to develop the peaceful atom.
0:27
There is such a concept of a system that
0:28
forms the tan industry which holds a
0:30
significant part of the economy. The
0:33
atomic future in my opinion can rightly
0:36
be called a somewhat different future
0:38
now forming the atomic sphere. It's not
0:41
just weapons or electricity. It's
0:43
breakthrough developments in a variety
0:45
of areas. Medicine, materials, space.
0:48
All this already has quite practical
0:50
application. Moreover, in most spheres,
0:53
we are ultimately undisputed leaders,
0:56
which clearly no one will be able to
0:58
catch up with the report of my colleague
0:59
Leonit Kadral for decades to come.
1:08
Nina, I dreamed of the sea since
1:10
childhood. Before my eyes, there was
1:12
always an example of my grandfather, a
1:13
long-distance voyage captain and the
1:14
older brother of a ship's mechanic. The
1:16
girl herself is already a step away from
1:18
the position of senior assistant captain
1:19
of the nuclear Icebreaker project 420.
1:24
There are already dozens of exams both
1:26
theoretical and on board the ship. You
1:27
need to know how to control the atomic
1:29
giant. How and in what situations to
1:31
cancel the power of the reactors? How to
1:33
lay a channel in the ice. The Isvestia
1:35
film crew walked a small part of the
1:37
way, the height of navigation. This is
1:39
such a peculiar road because of the
1:40
crushed one.
1:41
The icebreaker team calls the channel it
1:43
is cut at the very beginning of winter
1:44
navigation. that is in November or
1:46
November, December like this.
1:48
The canals can be used for a little more
1:50
than a month. Broken ice flows are
1:51
jammed under the edge of the ice on both
1:52
sides of the canal and freeze and so on.
1:55
For each passage, in the end, after
1:57
about a month, the broken ice simply has
1:58
nowhere to go along the edges of the
2:00
channel. The ice almost reaches to the
2:02
bottom and this shaft extends for 30 40
2:04
mi and the channel itself turns out to
2:06
be an ice porridge. In such conditions,
2:07
even 60 megawatt of a modern icebreaker
2:09
is simply not enough to move forward.
2:11
This giant structure is even impossible
2:13
to capture in its entirety. It is a huge
2:16
electric motor. On the contrary, they
2:18
have three ice breakers. One single task
2:22
is to turn learn it. At the end of which
2:24
there is a screw. The collapse looks
2:28
that's it. And the most interesting
2:29
thing this shaft is located
2:31
from the port side and it rotates
2:33
clockwise. The father of two others is
2:35
little against the sentry. This is
2:36
necessary to ensure that the icebreaker
2:38
moves steadily and nerves become
2:40
courses. All this is the insights of the
2:42
icebreaker arctic on which Nina Widow
2:45
finds her very first exit to the sea.
2:47
When I came here as a watch assistant
2:50
trainee in 1919,
2:52
we had several people there. You could
2:54
count on your fingers the girls on ice
2:56
breakers. And now on each icebreaker,
2:59
several girls are working precisely for
3:01
a command position. A few days ago, for
3:04
the first time in history, the
3:05
certificate of captain of the nuclear
3:07
icebreaker was awarded to Marina. She
3:09
walked all the way from Navali to the
3:11
top. A sailor's journey. There are fewer
3:13
nuclear icebreaker captains globally
3:15
than astronauts.
3:17
If there are any comments,
3:19
licenses are ready to be heard.
3:23
No noticed and no complaints. No good.
3:25
You should have talked about women in
3:27
the nuclear fleet. And uh during
3:28
Vladimir Putin's meeting with nuclear
3:30
industry workers, Nina Davina just
3:32
recently ended another flight and now
3:34
she's in the same room with the Russian
3:35
president.
3:36
Who are you on this?
3:38
Who are you working on this?
3:41
Two landlord captain go crazy. Honestly,
3:43
look, I thought the girl was studying at
3:45
school. She was too assistant capital.
3:52
But it's more about prospects. First of
3:54
all, said more way
3:56
is the northern sea route important to
3:58
you?
4:00
It's not important to me. It's important
4:02
to our country.
4:03
The northern sea route is the shortest
4:05
road between Europe and Asia. 2 and a
4:07
half,000 nautical miles from the Carate
4:09
to the bay, holding the Besets canal at
4:11
least two times longer, saving fuel
4:14
time. So in six years, cargo turnover
4:16
has almost doubled from 20 million tons
4:18
in 2018 to 38 million tons. 2024. Ole
4:22
Crommanov, captain of the nuclear
4:24
icebreaker, Vatch says that for most of
4:26
the planet sailors, Arctic waters seem
4:29
extremely dangerous, but only until
4:31
meeting the Russian icebreaker fleet.
4:33
There was a case when we conducted
4:35
foreign ships of the same company. The
4:37
captain stated that the ice there was
4:39
heavy and uh he's scared. After Wach
4:43
passed him through, he said, "No guys,
4:45
only there is no speed of 10 knots. The
4:47
problem is that we are going full speed.
4:48
That is they trust us. They know it's
4:50
safe alone.
4:51
Of the modes the ice breaker worked,
4:54
this movement was stirred forward. Then
4:56
the ice does not just break a large ice
4:58
flow, tightens the screws and breaks it
5:00
into much smaller pieces. Of course,
5:02
there are some supplies aboard the
5:03
icebreaker. These are the blades. But
5:05
the team says that it is virtually
5:07
impossible to break them by flying
5:09
around. See how thick it is here? Larger
5:12
than a human hand. Traffic along the
5:14
route has grown so much in recent years
5:16
that Voya Chatayamir ice breakers built
5:19
to work in the Yanisa Karasi are
5:21
increasingly reaching the Pacific Ocean.
5:24
Now there is a huge project there. It is
5:26
Pave who imported biioaterials.
5:29
This is Boiler Island. This is Sunny
5:31
Tixie Bay and the port is slowly
5:34
developing.
5:35
The Arctic is the world's almost
5:37
untouched reservoir of resources and
5:38
development experience. They exist only
5:40
in Russia. The same bimesky goen near
5:42
Pereave in the deposit itself beyond the
5:44
Arctic Circle in the wild tiger and
5:46
tandra. But there is already one
5:47
floating nuclear power plant in the
5:49
world and the only nuclear power plant
5:50
in the perafrost zone bellybins skaya.
5:56
Many countries are interested in the
5:57
Russian experience in the Arctic.
5:59
By the way, we are discussing with our
6:02
American partners the possibility of
6:05
working together in this area, not only
6:07
in our Arctic zone but also in Alaska.
6:10
At the same time technology that we have
6:12
by now
6:14
only we possess this expertise
6:17
and this is to present interest to our
6:19
partners including those from the
6:21
states.
6:21
Now there are three eight nuclear ice
6:24
breakers of which four are modern design
6:26
420 another three are being built as
6:28
well as the fundamentally new icebreaker
6:29
leader but already now there are more
6:31
nuclear ships in Russia than were
6:32
simultaneously in service in the SSSR
6:35
which means that crews as well as girls
6:36
in command positions will become more.
6:39
Leonid Petra Kil Gishian and Phil
6:41
Kamisarov report for Ren TV.