The world's most powerful nuclear icebreaker, Akrtika, entered service on Wednesday in the northern Russian city of Murmansk.

The Russian flag was raised on the ship in the presence of Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin. Earlier today (21), the government said in a statement that Russian Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin signed a decree allowing Arktika to come into operation. “This decision will allow the icebreaker to start in the waters of the Northern Sea Route from December 2020,” says the government statement.

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The Biggest and Most Powerful Ship in the World

According to the government, a new engine with increased capacity will be installed on the starboard side of the Arktika in 2021. The Arktika has successfully arrived in the northern port city of Murmansk after undergoing the final phase of her sea trials. Still on Wednesday, a ceremony to mark the delivery of the United Shipbuilding Corporation for Rosatom, the Russian state nuclear agency, will happen.  

The Arktika, one of the classes in Russia's Project 22220 icebreaker fleet, will be capable of escorting ship caravans in arctic conditions, breaking up to 3 meters of ice.

The icebreakers are designed to accompany ships transporting hydrocarbons from the Yamal and Gydan peninsulas and the Kara Sea shelf to Asian Pacific markets.

Ice tests were performed recently

“The ice tests are still ahead, probably this year, because now the ice tests didn't work out, the ice thickness was 1,1 to 1,2 meters. It was thin and loose, the icebreaker did not receive any resistance, ”says Shchapin.

He adds: "We tried to find a three-metre block of ice, but they didn't find it." Shchapin did not go into detail about where to find ice three meters thick. Currently, the entire Northern Sea Route north of Siberia, from the Kara Sea to the Bering Strait, is in open water.

The northernmost ice cap has never been reported to be weaker and thinner than this year. Multi-year sea ice is currently only found in the waters north of Canada, Alaska and Greenland. Departing from the Baltic Shipyard in Saint Petersburg on 22 September, Arktika sailed straight for the North Pole before heading south and calling at her new port, Murmansk, on 12 October.