There's no icebreaker like a nuclear icebreaker, and last week Russia launched its biggest yet: the 567-foot, 33,500-ton Arktika. It is no coincidence that the giant ship has been unveiled just as Russia plans to extend its influence in the Arctic region.

The Arktika, launched in St Petersberg, is the first of a new class of ships known as Type LK-60YA, ordered by Russian state nuclear agency Rosatom (eventually there will be three vessels). Its task will be to smash a path through the ice of the Northern Sea Route. Raw power counts for a lot in icebreaking, and by bringing 80,000 hp (60 megawatts) to bear, Arktika will be able to break through floating ice almost ten feet thick. The icebreaker will lead convoys along a route that otherwise would be impassable.

"There are no icebreakers equivalent to Arktika anywhere in the world," Rosatom CEO Sergey Kirienko said at the launching ceremony. He went on to claim that it is more advanced than anything afloat. "The icebreaker Arktika means real new opportunities for our country."

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Back in 2011, Russian President Vladimir Putin suggested the Northern Sea Route could become more important than the Suez Canal for world trade, as it offers a short passage from Europe to the Asian Pacific. The first ships to ply this passageway may be LNG (liquified natural gas) carriers transporting Russian gas to Eastern markets. New icebreakers will play a key role in this expansion.

The previous nuclear-powered icebreaker Arktika, which retired in 2008, displaced just 23,000 tons. So the new generation is almost 50 percent bigger. Russia currently has six nuclear icebreakers in operation as well as more than 30 diesel vessels. Here you can see the Russian ship 50 Let Pobody (the name means "50 years of victory") breaking some serious ice:

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The US currently has three icebreakers operated by the Coast Guard. These are non-nuclear, and much smaller than the Russian vessels—they weigh in at 13,000 tons and have a quarter of the power of the Arktika. Even so, the Polar Star can force a passage through ice more than six feet thick. Yet the disparity has some commentators worried about an "icebreaker gap" that would give the Russians an advantage in the Arctic.

"We're not even in the same league as Russia right now," Coast Guard Commandant Paul F. Zukunft told Newsweek in 2015. The concern is that the Russians will be better placed to exploit gas and oil deposits on the Actic seabed, an area Russia has been seeking to claim as her own.

Polar Star US Coast Guard

President Obama has accelerated plans for another Coast Guard icebreaker to be delivered in 2020. According to the Coast Guard, a second new heavy icebreaker will be needed "to ensure continued access to both polar regions and support the country's economic, commercial, maritime and national security needs." The ships cost about a billion dollars each, though, which is not easy to find in the current economic climate.

Arktika will now have her reactors installed, and the ship will be completed in 2017. Her sister ships, Siberia and Urals will follow in 2018 and 2020.

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