Nuclear icebreaker Lenin
Rompehielos nuclear Lenin
- Date
- 1957-1959 · confidence high
- Place
- Saint Petersburg, Russia
- Credited to
- Admiralty Shipyard and the Soviet design bureau
- Field
- Movement
What it is
The first civil surface ship with nuclear propulsion, with three pressurised-water reactors, able to keep the Arctic route open almost all year without refuelling. It entered service in 1959.
It suffered a reactor accident in 1965-1967 and was refitted; the damaged reactors were replaced by two units.
What it led to
- Russia's fleet of nuclear icebreakers
- seasonal navigation on the Northern Sea Route
- nuclear merchant ships (Savannah, Otto Hahn)