A spokesman for a St. Petersburg-based ship-construction company informed that the world’s largest nuclear-powered icebreaker has been launched and left St. Petersburg for Murmansk.
The 50 Years of Victory nuclear icebreaker was successfully tested this February. Vessel has been under construction since 1989 and was built at the Baltiisky Zavod ship factory.
The icebreaker will follow a Northern Sea route to make ice channeling for other vessels during the 2007 spring navigation period.
An upgraded Arktika-class icebreaker is designed to break through ice up to 9.2 feet. This is 522-foot long and 100-foot wide vessel, with deadweight of 25,000 metric tons, and meant for a 138-person crew.
The Russian nuclear-powered icebreaker fleet managed by the Murmansk Shipping Company, includes today five Arktika-class icebreakers (Arktika, Sibir, Rossiya, Sovetskiy Soyuz and Yamal), and two Taymyr-class river icebreakers (Taymyr and Vaygach).
Taking into account development of the Arctic shelf and increased traffic along the Northern Sea route, Russia will need 6 to 10 such icebreakers in the next 20 years, experts consider.

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