Nuclear Icebreakers Set to Be Replaced

Just when we thought the planet was being sucked dry of her last major oil reserve, it turns out she’s been hiding lots more from us, like a mother hiding chocolate from her kids. But with the newest nuclear icebreaker in preparation to lead a mission to retrieve the oil, it looks like the “chocolate” has been discovered.

Located underneath one of the most inhospitable and hostile environments on the planet is one of the largest oil reserves ever found. Holding up to a quarter of the world’s oil deposits, the mammoth ocean beneath the Arctic is set to become the next harvesting ground for companies with nuclear icebreakers from Russia and Northern countries looking for a piece of the pie. Retrieving the raw material and shipping it sea freight back to mainland refineries is going to be a mammoth task, but if there’s any ship up to the task, it’s the nuclear icebreaker.

Built to pummel and crush anything in its path, the icebreaker was designed to smash through ice as thick as three metres deep, creating waterways for less sturdy vessels to pass through. The nuclear icebreaker has always been considered the goliath of icebreaking, but it seems the vessels’ days are numbered with the new reversible ships set to replace them.

In the early 1990’s a new propulsion pod system was designed to increase manoeuvrability of sea vessels. The pod (Azipod propulsion units) houses the propeller and motor allowing the ship to not only move forwards and backwards, but to rotate 360 degrees, providing thrust in any direction. A happenstance discovery was that the pods provided additional assistance in icebreaking, that nuclear icebreakers don’t have. It was discovered that ships running backwards with the Azipod system have shown significant efficiency at breaking through ice faster than ships with the same bow but the standard propulsion system.

With the new design underway, freight shipping companies are seriously considering the new propulsion system to do the job in half the time of a nuclear icebreaker, which means the precious sea of oil won’t be untouched forever.