Icebreaker
In May 2007, sea trials were completed for the nuclear-powered Russian icebreaker NS . The vessel was put into service by Murmansk Shipping Company, which manages all eight Russian state-owned nuclear icebreakers. The keel was originally laid in 1989 by Baltic Works of Leningrad, and the ship was launched in 1993 as NS "Ural". This icebreaker was intended to be the sixth and last of the "Arktika" class, and currently is the world's largest icebreaker.
Sampo (1898 icebreaker)
After the newest and most powerful state-owned icebreakers, "Voima" and "Jääkarhu", were handed over to Soviet Union as war reparations, Finland was left with four old steam-powered icebreakers and the small diesel-electric "Sisu", which had been rejected due to the extensive damage it had sustained in the war. The newest steam-powered icebreaker, "Tarmo", was almost 40 years old and along with the others long overdue for replacement — even the largest Finnish icebreakers were not wide and powerful enough to assist the biggest post-war cargo ships. There was also a severe shortage of coal and occasionally the Finnish icebreakers had to rely on firewood. The steam-powered icebreakers were completely overhauled for the last time in 1951–1952 when they finally received modern navigation equipment — even as late as 1952 some had neither gyrocompass, sonar nor radar — and their crew spaces were rebuilt to modern standards. There were talks about converting the furnaces of "Sampo" from coal to oil, but it was not deemed necessary as the old icebreaker was due to decommissioning in the near future.