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 "Arktika" was withdrawn from service in 2008 after clocking up 175,000 hours of reactor operation time and covering more than 1 million nautical miles.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".
Nuclear-powered icebreaker
In all, ten civilian nuclear-powered vessels have been built in the USSR and Russia. Nine of these are icebreakers, and one is a container ship with an icebreaking bow. All six nuclear-powered icebreakers of the "Arktika" class have been built at the Baltic Shipyard in St. Petersburg. "Vaigach" and "Taimyr" were built at the Helsinki New Shipyard in Finland and then brought to Russia for installation of the reactors and turbogenerators.