APPENDIX E: INFORMATION ABOUT
THE NUCLEAR ICEBREAKER YAMAL
(From R. Headland, unpublished)
The ship is one of three Rossiya-class icebreakers leased to the Murmansk Shipping
Company by the Russian Government (her sisters are Rossiya [launched in 1985] and
Sovietskiy Soyuz [1990]).
The name is derived from a Nenets word meaning "End of the Earth," also applied to
the Yamal Peninsula.
Her keel was laid on 5 May 1986 in St. Petersburg and she was launched on 28
October 1992. Registered number M 43048 and International Call Sign UPIL.
Length overall 150 m, at waterline 136 m. Breadth overall 30 m, at waterline 28 m.
Draft 11.8 m. Height: keel-to-masthead: 55 m on 12 decks (four below water).
The ice knife, a 2-m-thick steel casting, is situated about 22 m aft of the prow.
Displacement: 23,455 tonnes; capacity 20,646 gross registered tons.
The cast steel prow is 50 cm thick at its strongest point.
The hull is double with water ballast between them. The outer hull is 48 mm thick
armour steel where ice is met and 25 mm elsewhere.
Eight bulkheads allow the ship to be divided into nine watertight compartments.
Icebreaking is assisted by an air bubbling system (delivering 24 m3/s from jets 9 m
below the surface), polymer coatings, specialized hull design, and capability of rapid
movement of ballast water. Ice may be broken while moving ahead or astern.
An MI-2 or KA-32 helicopter is carried for observing ice conditions ahead of the ship.
The ship is equipped to undertake short tow operations when assisting other vessels
through ice.
Search lights and other high intensity illumination are available for work during
winter darkness.
Complement: 131 (49 officers and 82 other ranks).
Power is supplied by two pressurized water nuclear reactors using enriched uranium
fuel rods. Each reactor weighs 160 tonnes; both are contained in a closed compartment
under reduced pressure. Fuel consumption is approximately 200 g a day of heavy iso-
topes when breaking thick ice. Five hundred kg of uranium isotopes are contained in each
reactor when fully fueled. This allows about 4 years between changes of the reactor cores.
Shielding of the reactor is by steel, high-density concrete, and water. The chain reaction
can be stopped in 06 seconds by full insertion of the safety rods. Used cores are extracted
and new ones installed in Murmansk, spent fuel is reprocessed, and waste is disposed of
at a nuclear waste plant. Ambient radiation is monitored by 86 sensors distributed through-
out the vessel. In accommodation areas this is 10 to 12 mRoentgen/h, within the reactor
compartment at 50% power, 800 mRoentgen/h. The primary cooling fluid is water that
Main propulsion system: each set of boilers drives two steam turbines which turn
three dynamos (thus six dynamos may operate). One kV DC is delivered to three double-
wound motors connected directly to the propellers.
Electricity for other purposes is provided by five steam turbines turning dynamos
that develop a total of 10 MW.
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