Who is the chief designer of the icebreaker? Nuclear icebreaker "Lenin". Icebreaker goes to sea

It is no coincidence that the Day of the Russian Nuclear Icebreaker Fleet is celebrated on December 3. Exactly 53 years ago, in 1959, on this day the flag was raised on the ship, which was destined to become the second legendary icebreaker after the Ermak, which the whole world knew about. “Lenin” is the first-born, “grandfather” of the nuclear icebreaker fleet, the first nuclear - as they call him, trying to emphasize the significant role he played in the development of peaceful atom in Russia.

Dive into history

The Admiralty Shipyards Museum is a small red building that you cannot find without a guide on the vast factory territory. The inside is clean, warm, and the ground floor is twilight. Stumbling upon stands with portraits of Peter the Great and drawings of sailing ships, which were made by skilled St. Petersburg shipbuilders 300 years ago, I walk together with the head of the museum, Elena Polikarpova, to the second floor. There is the history of the 20th century in a variety of models: from armored cruisers and the famous “pike” (diesel-electric torpedo submarines of the Shch project - ed.) to modern titanium deep-sea vehicles and giant gas carriers.

Of the veterans who participated in the construction of Lenin, there are no survivors,” Elena Viktorovna sighs. - Judge for yourself - almost 60 years have passed since the foundation was laid, and even more since the development of the project. If there are now very old people who remember "Lenin" standing on the stocks, then then they must have been very young general workers. The “founding fathers” who were allowed into the project left long ago.

In the shipyard museum, only two stands are dedicated to “Lenin” and a beautiful, carefully executed model about a meter in length and 50 centimeters in height. The archives carefully store project documentation - the so-called technical passport of the vessel. This is a thick book, where all the parameters of the ship are carefully written down, its detailed drawing, metal grades, spare parts, and so on are given. Every vessel, ship, submarine has such a document, but it usually has the abbreviation DSP on it, that is, “for official use.”

It was a project far ahead of its time. Why was the first icebreaker given to the Admiralty to build, and not to the Baltic Plant, located on the opposite bank of the Neva? There are different versions on this matter. One of them says that the technology for building shipyards was less expensive for the Soviet government at that time. For the post-war decade, the issue of price in the country was important,

Polikarpova says.

How was "grandfather" born?

We can say that “Lenin” was, in a sense, the brainchild of the “Cold War” that then unfolded between the USSR and the USA, says Hero of Socialist Labor, famous polar explorer Nikolai Kornilov. The Arctic has always attracted the attention of leading powers, and above all - not even as a field for scientific research, but as a territory for the possible placement of military aviation bases, submarines - in a word, as close as possible to the enemy’s shores.

After all, when SP-2 was landed (“North Pole-2” is the second Soviet research drifting station. It worked from April 2, 1950 to April 11, 1951 under the leadership of Mikhail Somov - ed.), they didn’t say anything about it at all and didn’t write. This is because the military worked there in parallel with the scientists,

Nikolai Alexandrovich explains.

The Lenin, of course, was not a warship. And his goals were still peaceful - guiding ships through the ice, helping those stuck in ice captivity on the Northern Sea Route. The phrase itself - “peaceful atom”, perhaps, became stronger in people’s minds precisely thanks to him.

According to Polikarpova, the development of Project 92 in the early 50s was carried out by the Leningrad TsKB-15 (now TsKB Iceberg). Why 92? This is the number in the periodic table of uranium, the basis of nuclear fuel. (Later, when “Lenin” came to work in Murmansk, “Base 92” was created there, which half a century later turned into the Federal State Unitary Enterprise “Atomflot” - ed.).

“The chief designer of the project was Vasily Neganov. Under the leadership of the outstanding scientist Igor Afrikantov, a nuclear plant was designed. The shape of the hull contours was worked out in the ice basin of the Arctic and Antarctic Research Institute. Ship turbines were created at the Kirov plant, the main turbogenerators for the icebreaker were built by the Kharkov Electromechanical Plant, rowing electric motors - Leningrad plant "Electrosila",

Polikarpova told.

"Lenin" was laid down on the Southern slipway of the Admiralty shipyards (on the famous Galerny Island, located between two branches of the Fontanka River at its confluence with the Neva - ed.). Half a century later (in 2009), the giant tanker Kirill Lavrov, whose length was twice the length of the “grandfather” of the nuclear icebreaker fleet, was launched from the same slipway.

Construction of the icebreaker "Lenin"

In total, about 300 enterprises and research institutes participated in the creation of the first nuclear-powered ship. In books on the history of the creation of "Lenin", authors often cite various figures and facts: 70 thousand parts, the total length of welds is more than 6 thousand kilometers (approximately the distance from Moscow to Vladivostok), testing of a new technique for assembling large parts according to a large-scale plan, photo projection method markings of body parts. Simply put, the project was new, the steel for it was also new (super strong), it had to be built in a short time, so it was necessary to mark out future parts, and cut metal for them, and bend it, and assemble one whole from parts in innovative ways.

"Lenin" was so large for those times that it was even lowered from the stocks using special pontoons - so that the hull, weighing 11 thousand tons, would not "burrow" into the bottom of the Neva when leaving the launch paths, which turned out to be too short.

“Lenin” was assembled in the open air - such a hero simply could not fit into any workshop. The residential superstructure was assembled separately and lowered in parts onto the finished building,

Polikarpova explains.

The launch took place on December 5, 1957, immediately after the midday cannon shot at the Peter and Paul Fortress, and in September 1959, the nuclear-powered submarine entered testing in the Gulf of Finland in order to enter service with the Soviet fleet on December 3, 1959. The first captain of "Lenin" was Pavel Ponomarev.

First years of life

From 1954 to 1961 I worked in Tiksi, where I heard about “Lenin”, and met its second captain, Boris Makarovich Sokolov, in those parts. Boris Makarovich sailed on the Lenin, first as Ponomarev’s backup captain, and then (in 1962 - ed.) he headed the crew,

Nikolai Kornilov continues the story.

Lenin's first Arctic navigation began in 1960. Even then, the first problems with the ice boxes arose. These are special devices for receiving sea water for cooling the power plant, which are fundamental for the safe and efficient operation of any icebreaker, especially a nuclear one. The ice boxes of the Lenin turned out to be located too high and were constantly clogged with ice crumbs, leaving the nuclear-powered ship without cooling.

Of course, not everything was smooth with its operation; the boxes had to be remade and many other things had to be improved. But we weren’t even afraid of the nuclear installation when we went on flights. We had no fear

Kornilov emphasized.

There were accidents at the Lenin power plant, but, fortunately, there were always no casualties. The most well-known fact today is a leak in the pipelines of the reactor plant in 1967, which resulted in significant damage to the reactor, writes Vladimir Blinov in the book “Icebreaker Lenin. The First Nuclear”.

Initially, the nuclear-powered ship had three reactors. In 1967-70, in Severodvinsk, a unique operation was carried out on it, which still has no analogues: they cut out and then “knocked out” with directed charges the central compartment with a faulty reactor installation, which made up a quarter of the weight of the icebreaker. Then the reactor compartment was towed to Novaya Zemlya and flooded in the strictest secrecy.

After that, the peaceful atom never failed the “grandfather” of the icebreaker fleet: the two-reactor OK-900 installation was installed on the Lenin, which, with minor changes, was subsequently installed on all nuclear-powered ships of the next generation (Arktika type).

Working with polar explorers

The landing of the drifting research station "North Pole-10" (SP-10) was the first ever landing of a station from a ship (icebreaker). Before this, ships were used only at SP-1, and only during the evacuation of the station.

Nowadays, disembarking drifting stations from a nuclear icebreaker is a common thing,” says Nikolai Kornilov, “but in 1961, when it became known that we would be drifting on SP-10, the idea of disembarking a station from a nuclear-powered icebreaker was new.

SP-10, of which Nikolai Aleksandrovich became the head, was supposed to be landed in the fall, since in the spring of 1961 the ice floe with SP-9 collapsed and it was urgently necessary to find a new ice floe to replace it and organize a station.

In August 1961, for the first time in my life, I saw the Lenin in Murmansk, where the head of the high-latitude expedition Sever-13, Dmitry Maksutov, and I arrived to participate in preparations for the voyage. Yes, the icebreaker made a positive impression, to be sure. We walked around it from top to bottom,

Kornilov smiles.

The nuclear-powered icebreaker was more than well prepared for its first scientific task: while it was heading to the landing site, the polar explorers assembled seven houses on the helipad so as not to waste time on the ice floe.

We carried 510 tons of diesel fuel with us - a reserve for two years, so that we could drift calmly. Compared to airplanes, landing from an icebreaker is, of course, incomparable - everything is delivered to the site at once. True, there was some cramping - the guys (polar explorers) slept in the gym, I snuggled on the senior mechanic’s sofa. Moreover, 13 correspondents went with us on that flight,

Kornilov remembers.

An ice reconnaissance aircraft helped the icebreaker search for the ice floe to land the station. They found good pack ice (multi-year ice at least three meters thick - ed.), but at the same time they were afraid that the icebreaker might not calculate the maneuver when approaching and split the desired area, Kornilov noted. However, the fears turned out to be in vain: SP-10 was opened on October 17, 1961 and existed until April 29, 1964, working three shifts.

Since then, "Lenin" worked uninterruptedly for 30 years - until 1989. As a result of the commissioning of the nuclear icebreaker, navigation in the western Arctic was extended from three to 11 months. It was “Lenin” that worked for the first time without a break for more than a year (13 months) in the Arctic. It was able to overcome ice at constant speed, which was previously considered impassable for diesel icebreakers.

"Lenin" exceeded its design lifespan by five years, writes Vladimir Blinov. During this time, he guided 3,741 transport icebreaking vessels through the Arctic ice, covering more than 654 thousand nautical miles (including 563.6 thousand in ice). Approximately the same distance will be obtained if you circle the globe 30 times along the equator.

If we talk about subsequent ships with a nuclear power plant, which were already made by the Baltic Shipyard, then, of course, they absorbed all the best that was developed during the creation and operation of the Lenin. The first atomic one gave birth to a whole direction in domestic shipbuilding. Without nuclear-powered ships, the presence of the USSR, and then Russia, in the Arctic would not have been so obvious. And by the way, the role of St. Petersburg, as the design and construction center of the country, in this case is also difficult to overestimate,

Elena Polikarpova summed up.

After "Lenin" was put into storage, the threat of disposal loomed over it. However, veterans of the nuclear icebreaker fleet and public figures of Murmansk managed to defend it from destruction. The Rosatom State Corporation, which has owned the country's nuclear icebreaker fleet since 2008, financed the restoration of the nuclear-powered ship, its radiation cleaning and berthing at the Murmansk Marine Station. Since then, "Lenin" has become one of the symbols of the capital of the Arctic, in fact being a museum of the nuclear fleet, but has not yet officially received this status.

And finally

From the time of construction, sea trials and raising the flag, "Lenin" never returned to the Baltic - to its native Leningrad shores. This was done by his “grandsons” and “great-grandsons” - the nuclear-powered ships “Vaigach”, “Russia” and “50 Years of Victory”, which in 2011 and 2012 came to work in the Gulf of Finland for the first time in the history of Atomflot.

...Now on the Southern slipway, from which the first-born of the nuclear icebreaker fleet went into the water more than half a century ago, nothing reminds of that December day when the entire adjacent territory of the Admiralty Shipyards was literally crowded with people welcoming the unprecedented ship. Only the brass table attached to the wall of the workshop reads: “On this slipway the world’s first nuclear-powered icebreaker “Lenin” was laid on August 28, 1956 and launched on December 5, 1957.

It so happened that the first use of atomic energy was military. This applies not only - the first nuclear propulsion system also had military applications. On January 17, 1955, the crew of the American nuclear submarine Nautilus sent a historic message: Underway on nuclear power. The Soviet Union, however, was not far behind. And, gratifyingly, almost simultaneously with the first Soviet nuclear submarine K-3 Leninsky Komsomol, the first surface and first civilian vessel with a nuclear reactor was launched - the nuclear icebreaker Lenin.

Photos: “Rosatom Country”.

Not a single icebreaker with diesel or gas turbine propulsion systems can operate uninterruptedly for more than a month and a half: there will not be enough fuel. Therefore, already in the early 1950s, the question arose about creating a “nuclear-powered” icebreaker.

The scientific director of the project was the great Anatoly Alexandrov, the future “atomic” president of the USSR Academy of Sciences (he also led the Komsomolets project). The reactor was commissioned to be developed.

Vasily Neganov, the chief designer of the icebreaker "Lenin", went through a difficult path - from an artel in which he unloaded barges, to a designer of ocean-going timber carriers, during the Great Patriotic War he accepted ships arriving under Lend-Lease, and designed icebreakers (though port ones).

The joint intensive work of the designers has borne fruit. On December 5, 1957, the nuclear icebreaker was launched. This does not mean that the ship could immediately go to fight the hummocks. There was a long construction period ahead.

Three nuclear reactors were installed on the icebreaker. Afrikantov's first creations were the OK-150 reactors, pressurized water reactors in which neutrons were moderated by superheated water under pressure. Each of the reactors was loaded with about 80 kilograms of enriched uranium dioxide, and each produced 90 megawatts of energy.

Correcting errors: In the first version of the material, the year of launch of the icebreaker was incorrectly indicated - this happened in 1957, not in 1955, and the name of the first Soviet nuclear submarine - it was called “Leninsky Komsomol”, not “Komsomolets” . In addition, information about the fourth captain of the Lenin, Valentin Davydyants, who has been commanding the icebreaker since the end of 2014, has been added to the article.

On December 5, 1957, the first nuclear-powered icebreaker in the USSR, the famous Lenin, was launched. The chief designer of the Lenin icebreaker, Vasily Ivanovich Neganov, together with the chief engineer of the nuclear installation, Igor Ivanovich Afrikantov, performed a colossal job.

The icebreaker was designed, built and launched in just 5 years. At this time, the USSR was still strongly feeling the post-war crisis, however, funds were still found to implement such a powerful project.

The mystery of the icebreaker "Lenin"

The designers of the icebreaker "Lenin" thought for a long time about what to call their project. For several days, mysterious forces threw a leather cap under the door of the design bureau. The designers were gripped by mystical horror; armed guards were posted at the door, who suddenly fell asleep, missing the next appearance of the cap. When they really wanted to call the icebreaker “Kepka”, one of the designers suggested calling it “Lenin”, which was an identical concept. According to some rumors, former Moscow mayor Yuri Luzhkov accepted Freemasonry on the icebreaker.

Please note - in the photographs from the rally dedicated to the icebreaker "Lenin", absolutely all the workers are wearing caps. If there was no cap near the icebreaker, accidents and incidents occurred.

Chief designer of the icebreaker "Lenin" and the mystery of the nuclear-powered ship

By the way, the inverted icebreaker “Lenin” again resembles a cap in cross-section. The mystical component of this mystery of the past has not yet been revealed.

St. PETERSBURG, December 3 – RIA Novosti, Anna Yudina. It is no coincidence that the Day of the Russian Nuclear Icebreaker Fleet is celebrated on December 3. Exactly 53 years ago, in 1959, on this day the flag was raised on the ship, which was destined to become the second legendary icebreaker after the Ermak, which the whole world knew about. “Lenin” is the first-born, the “grandfather” of the nuclear icebreaker fleet, the first nuclear - as they call him, trying to emphasize the significant role he played in the development of peaceful atom in Russia.

Dive into history

The Admiralty Shipyards Museum is a small red building that you cannot find without a guide on the vast factory territory. The inside is clean, warm, and the ground floor is twilight. Stumbling upon stands with portraits of Peter the Great and drawings of sailing ships, which were made by skilled St. Petersburg shipbuilders 300 years ago, I walk together with the head of the museum, Elena Polikarpova, to the second floor. There is the history of the 20th century in a variety of models: from armored cruisers and the famous "pike" ( diesel-electric torpedo submarines of the Shch project - ed.) to modern titanium deep-sea vehicles and giant gas carriers.

“Of the veterans who participated in the construction of Lenin, there are no survivors,” Elena Viktorovna sighs. - Judge for yourself - almost 60 years have passed since the foundation was laid, and even more since the development of the project. If there are now very old people who remember "Lenin" standing on the stocks, then then they must have been very young general workers. The “founding fathers” who were allowed into the project left long ago.

“It was a project that was far ahead of its time. Why was the first icebreaker given to the Admiralty to build, and not to the Baltic Plant, located on the opposite bank of the Neva? There are different versions on this matter. One of them says that the technology for building shipyards was less expensive for the Soviet government at that time. For the post-war decade, the issue of price in the country was important,” says Polikarpova.

How was "grandfather" born?

We can say that “Lenin” was, in a sense, the brainchild of the “Cold War” that then unfolded between the USSR and the USA, says Hero of Socialist Labor, famous polar explorer Nikolai Kornilov. The Arctic has always attracted the attention of leading powers, and above all, not even as a field for scientific research, but as a territory for the possible placement of military aviation bases, submarines - in a word, as close as possible to the enemy’s shores.

— After all, when SP-2 was landed ( "North Pole-2" is the second Soviet research drifting station. She worked from April 2, 1950 to April 11, 1951 under the leadership of Mikhail Somov - ed.), then nothing was said or written about her at all. This is because the military worked there in parallel with the scientists,” explains Nikolai Alexandrovich.

According to Polikarpova, the development of Project 92 in the early 50s was carried out by the Leningrad TsKB-15 (now TsKB Iceberg). Why 92? This is the number in the periodic table of uranium, the basis of nuclear fuel. ( Later, when “Lenin” came to work in Murmansk, “Base 92” was created there, which half a century later turned into the Federal State Unitary Enterprise “Atomflot” - ed.).

“The chief designer of the project was Vasily Neganov. Under the leadership of the outstanding scientist Igor Afrikantov, a nuclear plant was designed. The shape of the hull contours was worked out in the ice basin of the Arctic and Antarctic Research Institute. Ship turbines were created at the Kirov plant, the main turbogenerators for the icebreaker were built by the Kharkov Electromechanical Plant, rowing electric motors - Leningrad Elektrosila plant,” Polikarpova said.

"Lenin" was laid down on the Southern slipway of the Admiralty Shipyards ( on the famous Galerny Island, located between two branches of the Fontanka River at its confluence with the Neva - ed.). Half a century later (in 2009), the giant tanker Kirill Lavrov, whose length was twice the length of the “grandfather” of the nuclear icebreaker fleet, was launched from the same slipway.

"Lenin" was so large for those times that it was even lowered from the stocks using special pontoons - so that the hull weighing 11 thousand tons would not "burrow" into the bottom of the Neva when leaving the launch paths, which turned out to be a little short.

— “Lenin” was assembled in the open air; such a hero simply could not fit into any workshop. The residential superstructure was assembled separately and lowered in parts onto the already finished building, explains Polikarpova.

First years of life

— From 1954 to 1961, I worked in Tiksi, where I heard about “Lenin”, and met its second captain, Boris Makarovich Sokolov, in those parts. Boris Makarovich sailed on the Lenin, first as Ponomarev’s backup captain, and then ( in 1962 - ed.) headed the crew,” Nikolai Kornilov continues the story.

- Of course, not everything was smooth with its operation; we had to redo the boxes and modify a lot of other things. But we weren’t even afraid of the nuclear installation when we went on flights. We had no fear,” Kornilov emphasized.

There were accidents at the Lenin power plant, but, fortunately, there were always no casualties. The most famous fact today is a leak in the pipelines of the reactor plant in 1967, which resulted in significant damage to the reactor, writes Vladimir Blinov in the book “Icebreaker Lenin. The First Nuclear”.

Working with polar explorers

“Nowadays, disembarking drifting stations from a nuclear icebreaker is a common thing,” says Nikolai Kornilov, “but in 1961, when it became known that we would be drifting on SP-10, the idea of disembarking a station from a nuclear-powered icebreaker was new.

— In August 1961, for the first time in my life, I saw “Lenin” in Murmansk, where the head of the high-latitude expedition “North-13” Dmitry Maksutov and I arrived to participate in preparations for the voyage. Yes, the icebreaker made a positive impression, to be sure. We walked around it from top to bottom,” Kornilov smiles.

“We carried 510 tons of diesel fuel with us—a supply for two years, so we could drift safely. Compared to airplanes, landing from an icebreaker is, of course, incomparable - everything is delivered to the site at once. True, there was some cramping - the guys (polar explorers) slept in the gym, I snuggled on the senior mechanic’s sofa. Moreover, 13 correspondents went with us on that flight,” recalls Kornilov.

An ice reconnaissance aircraft helped the icebreaker search for the ice floe to land the station. Found good pack ice ( multi-year ice at least three meters thick - ed.), but at the same time they were afraid that the icebreaker might not calculate the maneuver when approaching and split the desired area, Kornilov noted. However, the fears turned out to be in vain: SP-10 was opened on October 17, 1961 and existed until April 29, 1964, working three shifts.

"Lenin" exceeded its design lifespan by five years, writes Vladimir Blinov. During this time, he guided 3,741 transport icebreaking vessels through the Arctic ice, covering more than 654 thousand nautical miles (including 563.6 thousand in ice). Approximately the same distance will be obtained if you circle the globe 30 times along the equator.

— If we talk about subsequent ships with a nuclear power plant, which were already made by the Baltic Shipyard, then, of course, they absorbed all the best that was developed during the creation and operation of the Lenin. The first atomic one gave birth to a whole direction in domestic shipbuilding. Without nuclear-powered ships, the presence of the USSR, and then Russia, in the Arctic would not have been so obvious. And by the way, the role of St. Petersburg, as the design and construction center of the country, in this case is also difficult to overestimate,” concluded Elena Polikarpova.

And finally

I understand that this is all a large-scale repetition of a huge number of photographs of people who visited the ship on excursions, especially since they are taken to the same places. But I was interested in figuring it out myself.

This is our guide to the nuclear-powered ship:

The talk was about creating a vessel that could sail for a very long time without calling at ports for fuel.
Scientists have calculated that a nuclear icebreaker will consume 45 grams of nuclear fuel per day - as much as will fit in a matchbox. That is why the nuclear-powered ship, having a virtually unlimited navigation area, will be able to visit both the Arctic and the coast of Antarctica in one voyage. For a ship with a nuclear power plant, distance is not an obstacle.

Initially, we were gathered in this room for a brief introduction to the tour and were divided into two groups.

The Admiralty had considerable experience in the repair and construction of icebreakers. Back in 1928, they overhauled the “grandfather of the icebreaker fleet” - the famous Ermak.
The construction of icebreakers and icebreaking transport vessels at the plant was associated with a new stage in the development of Soviet shipbuilding - the use of electric welding instead of riveting. The plant staff was one of the initiators of this innovation. The new method was successfully tested on the construction of Sedov-class icebreakers. The icebreakers "Okhotsk", "Murman", "Okean", in the construction of which electric welding was widely used, showed excellent performance; their hull turned out to be more durable compared to other ships.

Before the Great Patriotic War, the plant built a large icebreaking transport vessel, Semyon Dezhnev, which immediately after sea trials headed to the Arctic to remove caravans that had wintered there. Following the Semyon Dezhnev, the icebreaking transport vessel Levanevsky was launched. After the war, the plant built another icebreaker and several self-propelled icebreaker-type ferries.
A large scientific team, headed by the outstanding Soviet physicist Academician A.P. Alexandrov, worked on the project. Under his leadership worked such prominent specialists as I. I. Afrikantov, A. I. Brandaus, G. A. Gladkov, B. Ya. Gnesin, V. I. Neganov, N. S. Khlopkin, A. N. Stefanovich and Other.

Let's go up one floor

The dimensions of the nuclear-powered icebreaker were chosen taking into account the requirements of operating icebreakers in the North and ensuring its best seaworthiness: icebreaker length 134 m, width 27.6 m, shaft power 44,000 hp. s., displacement 16,000 tons, speed 18 knots in clear water and 2 knots in ice more than 2 m thick.

Long corridors

The designed power of the turboelectric installation is unparalleled. The nuclear icebreaker is twice as powerful as the American icebreaker Glacier, which was considered the largest in the world.
When designing the ship's hull, special attention was paid to the shape of the bow, on which the icebreaking qualities of the ship largely depend. The contours chosen for the nuclear-powered icebreaker, compared to existing icebreakers, make it possible to increase the pressure on the ice. The stern end is designed in such a way that it ensures maneuverability in ice when reversing and reliable protection of the propellers and rudder from ice impacts.

Dining room:
What about the galley? This is a fully electrified plant with its own bakery; hot food is served by electric elevator from the kitchen to the dining rooms.

In practice, it was observed that icebreakers sometimes got stuck in the ice not only with their bow or stern, but also with their sides. To avoid this, it was decided to install special ballast tank systems on the nuclear-powered ship. If water is pumped from a tank on one side to a tank on the other side, then the ship, swaying from side to side, will break and push the ice apart with its sides. The same tank system is installed in the bow and stern. What if the icebreaker doesn’t break the ice while moving and its bow gets stuck? Then you can pump water from the stern trim tank to the bow one. The pressure on the ice will increase, it will break, and the icebreaker will leave the ice captivity.
To ensure the unsinkability of such a large vessel if the hull was damaged, they decided to divide the hull into compartments with eleven main transverse watertight bulkheads. When calculating the nuclear icebreaker, the designers ensured that the vessel was unsinkable when the two largest compartments were flooded.

The team of builders of the polar giant was headed by the talented engineer V.I. Chervyakov.

In July 1956, the first section of the hull of the nuclear icebreaker was laid down.
To lay out the theoretical drawing of the building on the plaza, a huge area was required - about 2,500 square meters. Instead, the breakdown was made on a special shield using a special tool. This made it possible to reduce the area for marking. Then template drawings were made and photographed on photographic plates. The projection apparatus into which the negative was placed reproduced the light contour of the part on the metal. The photo-optical marking method made it possible to reduce the labor intensity of plaza and marking work by 40%.

We get into the engine compartment

The nuclear icebreaker, as the most powerful vessel in the entire icebreaker fleet, is designed to combat ice in the most difficult conditions; therefore, its body must be especially durable. It was decided to ensure high strength of the hull by using a new grade of steel. This steel has increased impact toughness. It welds well and has great resistance to crack propagation at low temperatures.

The design of the nuclear-powered ship's hull and its installation system also differed from other icebreakers. The bottom, sides, internal decks, platforms and the upper deck at the ends were constructed using a transverse framing system, and the upper deck in the middle part of the icebreaker was constructed using a longitudinal system.
The building, the height of a good five-story building, consisted of sections weighing up to 75 tons. There were about two hundred such large sections.

The assembly and welding of such sections was carried out by the pre-assembly section of the hull shop.

It is interesting to note that the nuclear-powered ship has two power plants capable of providing energy to a city with a population of 300,000. Neither drivers nor stokers are needed on the ship: all the work of power plants is automated.
It should be said about the latest electric propeller motors. These are unique machines, manufactured in the USSR for the first time, specifically for a nuclear-powered ship. The numbers speak for themselves: the weight of an average engine is 185 tons, the power is almost 20,000 hp. With. The engine had to be delivered to the icebreaker disassembled, in parts. Loading the engine onto the ship presented great difficulties.

People like cleanliness here too

From the pre-assembly area, the finished sections were delivered directly to the slipway. The assemblers and inspectors quickly installed them in place.
During the manufacture of units for the first experimental standard sections, it turned out that the steel sheets from which they were to be made weighed 7 tons, and the cranes available at the procurement site had a lifting capacity of only up to 6 tons.
The presses were also underpowered.

It is worth telling about another instructive example of the close collaboration of workers, engineers and scientists.
According to approved technology, stainless steel structures were welded by hand. More than 200 experiments were carried out; finally, the welding modes were worked out. Five automatic welders replaced 20 manual welders, who were transferred to work in other areas.

For example, there was such a case. Due to the very large dimensions, it was impossible to deliver the fore- and stern-posts - the main structures of the bow and stern of the vessel - by rail to the plant. Massive, heavy, weighing 30 and 80 g, they did not fit on any railway platforms. Engineers and workers decided to manufacture the stems directly at the factory by welding their individual parts.

To imagine the complexity of assembling and welding the mounting joints of these stems, it is enough to say that the minimum thickness of the welded parts reached 150 mm. Welding of the stem lasted 15 days in 3 shifts.

While the building was being erected on the slipway, parts, pipelines, and instruments were being manufactured and installed in various workshops of the plant. Many of them came from other enterprises. The main turbogenerators were built at the Kharkov Electromechanical Plant, the propulsion electric motors were built at the Leningrad Elektrosila plant named after S. M. Kirov. Such electric motors were created in the USSR for the first time.
Steam turbines were assembled in the workshops of the Kirov plant.

The use of new materials required changes in many established technological processes. Pipelines were installed on the nuclear-powered ship, which were previously connected by soldering.
In collaboration with specialists from the plant’s welding bureau, workers in the installation shop developed and implemented electric arc welding of pipes.

The nuclear-powered ship required several thousand pipes of various lengths and diameters. Experts have calculated that if the pipes are extended in one line, their length will be 75 kilometers.

Finally, the time has come to complete the slipway work.
Before the descent, first one difficulty arose, then another.
So, installing the heavy rudder blade was not an easy task. The complex design of the stern end of the nuclear-powered icebreaker did not allow it to be put in place in the usual way. In addition, by the time the huge part was installed, the upper deck had already been closed. In these conditions it was impossible to take risks. They decided to hold a “dress rehearsal” - first they set up not a real baller, but its “double” - a wooden model of the same dimensions. The “rehearsal” was a success, the calculations were confirmed. Soon the multi-ton part was quickly put into place.

The launch of the icebreaker was just around the corner. The large launching weight of the vessel (11 thousand tons) made it difficult to design the launching device, although specialists were working on this device almost from the moment the first sections were laid on the slipway.

According to the calculations of the design organization, in order to launch the icebreaker "Lenin" into the water, it was necessary to lengthen the underwater part of the launching tracks and deepen the bottom behind the pit of the slipway.
A group of workers from the plant's design bureau and hull workshop developed a more advanced launching device compared to the original design.

For the first time in the practice of domestic shipbuilding, a spherical wooden turning device and a number of other new design solutions were used.
To reduce the launching weight, provide greater stability when launching and braking the vessel once it has left the slipway on the water, special pontoons were installed under the stern and bow.
The icebreaker's hull was freed from scaffolding. Surrounded by portal cranes, sparkling with fresh paint, it was ready to set off on its first short journey - to the water surface of the Neva.

Go ahead

Let's go down

. . . PAGE. To an uninitiated person, these three letters mean nothing. PEZh - energy and survivability post - the brain for controlling the icebreaker. From here, with the help of automatic instruments, operating engineers - people of a new profession in the fleet - can remotely control the operation of the steam generator plant. From here, the necessary operating mode of the “heart” of the nuclear-powered ship - the reactors - is maintained.

Experienced sailors, who have been sailing on ships of various types for many years, are surprised: PES specialists wear snow-white coats over their regular naval uniform.

The power and survivability station, as well as the pilothouse and crew cabins are located in the central superstructure.

And now further down the story:

December 5, 1957 In the morning it was drizzling continuously, with sleet falling from time to time. A sharp, gusty wind was blowing from the bay. But people seemed not to notice the gloomy Leningrad weather. Long before the icebreaker was launched, the areas around the slipway were filled with people. Many boarded a tanker that was being built next door.

Exactly at noon, the nuclear-powered icebreaker "Lenin" anchored in the very place where the "Aurora" - the legendary ship of the October Revolution - stood on the memorable night of October 25, 1917.

The construction of the nuclear-powered ship has entered a new period - its completion afloat has begun.

The nuclear power plant is the most important part of the icebreaker. The most prominent scientists worked on the design of the reactor. Each of the three reactors is almost 3.5 times more powerful than the reactor of the world's first nuclear power plant of the USSR Academy of Sciences.

OK-150 "Lenin" (until 1966)
Rated reactor power, VMT 3x90
Nominal steam output, t/h 3x120
Propeller power, l/s 44,000

The layout of all installations is block-based. Each unit includes a water-cooled reactor (i.e. water is both a coolant and a neutron moderator), four circulation pumps and four steam generators, volume compensators, an ion exchange filter with a refrigerator and other equipment.

The reactor, pumps and steam generators have separate housings and are connected to each other by short pipe-in-pipe pipes. All equipment is located vertically in the caissons of the iron water protection tank and is covered with small-sized protection blocks, which ensures easy accessibility during repair work.

A nuclear reactor is a technical installation in which a controlled chain reaction of fission of nuclei of heavy elements is carried out with the release of nuclear energy. The reactor consists of an active zone and a reflector. A water-water reactor - the water in it is both a moderator of fast neutrons and a cooling and heat exchange medium. The core contains nuclear fuel in a protective coating (fuel elements - fuel rods) and a moderator. Fuel rods, which look like thin rods, are collected in bundles and enclosed in covers. Such structures are called fuel assemblies.

Fuel rods, which look like thin rods, are collected in bundles and enclosed in covers. Such structures are called fuel assemblies (FA). The reactor core is a collection of active parts of fresh fuel assemblies (FFA), which in turn consist of fuel elements (fuel elements). 241 STVS are placed in the reactor. The resource of the modern active zone (2.1-2.3 million MW hours) provides the energy needs of a ship with a nuclear power plant for 5-6 years. After the energy resource of the core is exhausted, the reactor is recharged.

The reactor vessel with an elliptical bottom is made of low-alloy heat-resistant steel with anti-corrosion surfacing on the internal surfaces.

Operating principle of APPU
The thermal circuit of the nuclear-powered ship's PUF consists of 4 circuits.

The first circuit coolant (highly purified water) is pumped through the reactor core. The water heats up to 317 degrees, but does not turn into steam because it is under pressure. From the reactor, the coolant of the 1st circuit enters the steam generator, washing the pipes inside which the water of the 2nd circuit flows, turning into superheated steam. Next, the coolant of the first circuit is again supplied to the reactor by the circulation pump.

From the steam generator, superheated steam (coolant of the 2nd circuit) enters the main turbines. Steam parameters in front of the turbine: pressure - 30 kgf/cm2 (2.9 MPa), temperature - 300 °C. Then the steam condenses, the water passes through an ion exchange purification system and again enters the steam generator.

The third circuit is intended for cooling the equipment of the automatic control unit; high-purity water (distillate) is used as a coolant. The coolant of the third circuit has insignificant radioactivity.

The IV circuit serves to cool water in the III circuit system; sea water is used as a coolant. Also, the IV circuit is used to cool the steam of the II circuit during installation and cooling of the installation.

The control unit is designed and placed on the vessel in such a way as to ensure protection of the crew and the population from radiation, and the environment from contamination by radioactive substances within the limits of permissible safe standards both during normal operation and in case of accidents of the installation and the vessel at the expense. For this purpose, four protective barriers between nuclear fuel and the environment have been created on possible routes for the release of radioactive substances:

the first - the shells of the fuel elements of the reactor core;

the second - strong walls of equipment and pipelines of the primary circuit;

the third is the containment shell of the reactor installation;

the fourth is a protective fence, the boundaries of which are the longitudinal and transverse bulkheads, the second bottom and the flooring of the upper deck in the area of the reactor compartment.

Everyone wanted to feel a little like a hero :-)))

In 1966, two OK-900s were installed instead of three OK-150s

OK-900 “Lenin”
Rated reactor power, VMT 2x159
Nominal steam output, t/h 2x220
Propeller power, l/s 44000

Room in front of the reactor compartment

Windows into the reactor compartment

In February 1965, an accident occurred during scheduled repair work at reactor No. 2 of the nuclear icebreaker Lenin. As a result of operator error, the core was left without water for some time, causing partial damage to approximately 60% of the fuel assemblies.

During channel-by-channel reloading, only 94 of them were able to be unloaded from the core; the remaining 125 turned out to be unremovable. This part was unloaded along with the screen assembly and placed in a special container, which was filled with a futurol-based hardening mixture and then stored in onshore conditions for about 2 years.

In August 1967, the reactor compartment with the OK-150 nuclear power plant and its own sealed bulkheads was flooded directly from the icebreaker Lenin through the bottom in the shallow Tsivolki Bay in the northern part of the Novaya Zemlya archipelago at a depth of 40-50 m.

Before flooding, nuclear fuel was unloaded from the reactors, and their primary circuits were washed, drained and sealed. According to the Iceberg Central Design Bureau, the reactors were filled with a hardening mixture based on futurol before flooding.

A container with 125 spent fuel assemblies, filled with futurol, was moved from the shore, placed inside a special pontoon and flooded. At the time of the accident, the ship's nuclear power plant had operated for about 25,000 hours.

After that, ok-150 were replaced by ok-900
Once again about the principles of operation:
How does the nuclear power plant of an icebreaker work?
Uranium rods are placed in a special order in the reactor. The system of uranium rods is penetrated by a swarm of neutrons, a kind of “fuses” that cause the decay of uranium atoms with the release of a huge amount of thermal energy. The rapid movement of neutrons is tamed by a moderator. Myriads of controlled atomic explosions, caused by a stream of neutrons, occur in the thickness of the uranium rods. As a result, a so-called chain reaction is formed.
B&W photos are not mine

The peculiarity of the icebreaker's nuclear reactors is that the neutron moderator is not graphite, as in the first Soviet nuclear power plant, but distilled water. The uranium rods placed in the reactor are surrounded by the purest water (double distilled). If you fill a bottle with it up to the neck, you will absolutely not notice whether water is poured into the bottle or not: the water is so transparent!
In the reactor, the water is heated above the melting point of lead - more than 300 degrees. Water does not boil at this temperature because it is under a pressure of 100 atmospheres.

The water in the reactor is radioactive. With the help of pumps, it is driven through a special steam generator apparatus, where it turns non-radioactive water into steam with its heat. The steam enters a turbine that rotates a DC generator. The generator supplies current to the propulsion motors. The exhaust steam is sent to the condenser, where it is again converted into water, which is again pumped into the steam generator. Thus, in a system of complex mechanisms, a kind of water cycle occurs.
B&W photos taken by me from the Internet

The reactors are installed in special metal drums welded into a stainless steel tank. The reactors are closed on top with lids, under which there are various devices for automatically lifting and moving uranium rods. The entire operation of the reactor is controlled by instruments, and if necessary, “mechanical arms”-manipulators come into action, which can be controlled from a distance, located outside the compartment.

The reactor can be viewed on TV at any time.
Everything that poses a danger due to its radioactivity is carefully isolated and located in a special compartment.
The drainage system drains hazardous liquids into a special tank. There is also a system for capturing air with traces of radioactivity. The air flow from the central compartment is thrown through the mainmast to a height of 20 m.
In all corners of the ship you can see special dosimeters, ready at any time to notify of increased radioactivity. In addition, each crew member is equipped with an individual pocket-type dosimeter. Safe operation of the icebreaker is fully ensured.
The designers of the nuclear-powered icebreaker have provided for all sorts of contingencies. If one reactor fails, another will replace it. The same work on a ship can be performed by several groups of identical mechanisms.
This is the basic operating principle of the entire nuclear power plant system.
In the compartment where the reactors are located, there is a huge number of pipes of complex configurations and large sizes. The pipes had to be connected not as usual, using flanges, but butt welded with an accuracy of one millimeter.

Simultaneously with the installation of nuclear reactors, the main machinery of the engine room was installed at a rapid pace. Steam turbines were installed here, rotating generators,
on an icebreaker; There are more than five hundred electric motors of varying power alone on the nuclear-powered ship!

Corridor in front of the first aid station

While the installation of power systems was underway, engineers were working on how to better and faster install and put into operation a control system for ship mechanisms.
All management of the complex facilities of the icebreaker is carried out automatically, directly from the wheelhouse. From here the captain can change the operating mode of the propeller engines.

The first aid station itself: Medical rooms - therapeutic, dental x-ray, physiotherapy, operating room? procedures: Yuya, as well as the laboratory and pharmacy - are equipped with the latest treatment and prophylactic equipment.

Work related to the assembly and installation of the ship's superstructure. There was a difficult task ahead: to assemble a huge superstructure, weighing about 750 tons. The workshop also built a boat with a water-jet propulsion, main and foremasts for the icebreaker.
The four superstructure blocks assembled in the workshop were delivered to the icebreaker and installed here by a floating crane.

A huge amount of insulation work had to be performed on the icebreaker. The insulation area was approximately 30,000 m2. New materials were used to insulate the premises. Every month 100-120 premises were presented for acceptance.

Mooring tests are the third (after the slipway period and completion afloat) stage of the construction of each vessel.

Before the icebreaker's steam generator plant was launched, steam had to be supplied from the shore. The installation of the steam pipeline was complicated by the lack of special flexible hoses of large cross-section. It was not possible to use a steam pipeline made of ordinary metal pipes tightly fixed. Then, at the suggestion of a group of innovators, they used a special hinge device, which ensured a reliable supply of steam through a steam line on board the nuclear-powered ship.

Fire electric pumps were launched and tested first, and then the entire fire system. Then, testing of the auxiliary boiler plant began.
The engine started working. The instrument needles trembled. A minute, five, ten. . . The engine runs great! And after some time, the installers began adjusting the devices that control the temperature of water and oil.

When testing auxiliary turbogenerators and diesel generators, special devices were needed that made it possible to load two parallel operating turbogenerators.
How were the turbogenerators tested?
The main difficulty was that during operation the voltage regulators needed to be replaced with new, more advanced ones that ensure automatic voltage maintenance even under heavy overload conditions.
Mooring tests continued. In January 1959, turbogenerators with all the mechanisms and automatic machines servicing them were adjusted and tested. Simultaneously with the testing of auxiliary turbogenerators, electric pumps, ventilation systems and other equipment were tested.
While the mechanisms were being tested, other work was in full swing.

Successfully fulfilling their obligations, the Admiralty completed testing of all main turbogenerators and electric propulsion motors in April. The test results were excellent. All calculation data made by scientists, designers, and designers were confirmed. The first stage of testing of the nuclear-powered submarine was completed. And finished successfully!

In April 1959
The bilge compartment installers got into action.

The first-born of the Soviet nuclear fleet, the icebreaker "Lenin" is a vessel perfectly equipped with all means of modern radio communications, location installations, and the latest navigation equipment. The icebreaker is equipped with two radars - short-range and long-range. The first is intended for solving operational navigation problems, the second is for monitoring the environment and the helicopter. In addition, it should duplicate the short-range locator in snow or rain conditions.

The equipment located in the bow and stern radio rooms will provide reliable communication with the shore, with other ships and with aircraft. Intra-ship communication is carried out by an automatic telephone exchange with 100 numbers, separate telephones in various rooms, as well as a powerful shipwide radio broadcast network.
Work on installation and adjustment of communications equipment was carried out by special teams of installers.
Responsible work was carried out by electricians to commission electrical and radio equipment and various devices in the wheelhouse.

The nuclear-powered ship will be able to sail for a long time without calling at ports. This means it is very important where and how the crew will live. That is why, when creating the icebreaker project, special attention was paid to the living conditions of the crew.

Further living rooms

. .. Long bright corridors. Along them there are sailor cabins, mostly single, less often for two people. During the day, one of the sleeping places is retracted into a niche, the other turns into a sofa. In the cabin, opposite the sofa, there is a desk and a swivel chair. Above the table there is a clock and a shelf for books. Nearby are wardrobes for clothes and personal belongings.
In the small entrance vestibule there is another closet - specifically for outerwear. There is a mirror above the small earthenware washbasin. Hot and cold water in taps - around the clock. In short, a cozy modern small apartment.

All rooms have fluorescent lighting. The electrical wiring is hidden under the lining, it is not visible. Milky glass screens protect the fluorescent lamps from harsh direct rays. Each bed has a small lamp that gives soft pink light. After a hard day, coming to his cozy cabin, the sailor can have a great rest, read, listen to the radio, music...

There are also household workshops on the icebreaker - shoemaking and tailoring; There is a hairdressing salon, mechanical laundry, baths and showers.
Returning to the central staircase

We go up to the captain's cabin

More than one and a half thousand cabinets, armchairs, sofas, and shelves took their places in the cabins and service areas. True, all this was produced not only by woodworkers of the Admiralty plant, but also by workers of furniture factory No. 3, the plant named after A. Zhdanov, and the Intourist factory. The Admiralty made 60 separate sets of furniture, as well as various wardrobes, beds, tables, hanging cabinets and bedside tables - beautiful, high-quality furniture.