Nuclear-powered icebreaker
On 17 August 1977, NS "Arktika" ("Arctic") became the first surface ship ever to reach the North Pole. "Arktika" was withdrawn from service in 2008 after clocking up 175,000 hours of reactor operation time and covering more than 1 million nautical miles. Rather than be scrapped, there are calls for her to be converted to a museum ship, like her predecessor "Lenin".
Icebreaker
The steam-powered icebreakers were resurrected in the late 1950s when the Soviet Union commissioned the first nuclear-powered icebreaker, "Lenin", in 1959. It had a nuclear-turbo-electric powertrain in which the nuclear reactor was used to produce steam for turbogenerators, which in turn produced electricity for propulsion motors. Starting from 1975, the Russians commissioned six "Arktika"-class nuclear icebreakers of which the last, 2007-built "50 Let Pobedy", is the largest and most powerful icebreaker in the world at . In addition, two shallow-draft "Taymyr"-class nuclear icebreakers were built in Finland for the Soviet Union in the late 1980s. The Soviets also built a nuclear-powered icebreaking cargo ship, "Sevmorput", which had a single nuclear reactor and a steam turbine directly coupled to the propeller shaft. Russia, which remains the sole operator of nuclear-powered icebreakers, is currently building a new icebreakers to replace the aging "Arktika" class. The first vessel of this type is expected to enter service in 2017.