The Soviet Union’s Nuclear Icebreakers 

You missed a few things: One of the biggest reasons for making a nuclear icebreaker, the waste reactor heat is used to heat the hull in order to melt ice, and produce super heated sea water that is also used to melt ice. Also the Soviets and later Russians use their Ice Breakers to pull the cargo ships they are escorting with large steel cables, so their propulsion engines are not needed during the escort...

"It was rad". I see what you did there. I'll rem-ember this.

Bow is pronounced bao.

I'm always fascinated by the many obscure words you can pronounce and the many common ones you cant

Just saw one of these giants in St.Petersburg this summer. Just chilling on the bank and this beast silently coasts towards me. That was quite the sight. Fun fact: there was a fisherman in a small inflatable boat. The icebreaker passed very close to him, but the old man seemed to not even notice.

Taymyr class icebreakers weren't really intended as newer replacement for old icebreakers. It was supposed to service in a different niche, such as towing ships/break ice into Siberian rivers, where bigger ships like Lenin or Arktika was impossible to use.

I just want to say how much I enjoy your work, and just how amazing your videos are. You continue to produce some of the most unique and impressively made mini documentaries on topics rarely even covered. The research involved in making such high quality videos on topics like this must be a challenge, especially getting so detailed in your research. Just want to thank you for your amazing and fascinating videos. You have certainly worked damn hard, and have an amazing talent for covering topics with a sensitivity that is very unique and refreshing. The way you bring in the political, cultural, and historical context of each topic you cover is a talent that very few have. The author and RU-vidr Dan Davis is the only one else that I know who makes videos with your level of deep topical sensitivity, and ability to bring a deeper context to whatever you are making a video about. Keep up the amazing work, always learn something completely new! Thanks again!

Amazed at the pace of output on this channel. The depth of research and interesting topics is impressive.

I started watching this channel for chip fab news, but it has rapidly become one of my favourite documentary channels - keep up the good work! 👍

I've been fascinated with the Akademik Lomonosov and life in Pevek where it is docked. It makes both electricity and hot water. Even steam baths are connected to it.

I've always been fascinated by the Arktika class breakers, ever since I heard about them from a game called Cryostaisis. Good to see a neat lil overview on em.

Your videos are always a delight. Assorted interesting topics, presented in some depth. Thank you!

There are lots of educational channels on YT. I subbed the best of them over the years, skipped the self-praising ones, never payed for any. Yours may be the first worth spending some, your educational style is crystal-clear and, whilst delivered pan dry, keeps enough humour in to sugar coat the in depth analysis. Great content, is there a team behind it, or just one Dude ? Keep up the work, you are great at it. Way better than the very most.

Life is simple. Asianometry uploads. I listen.

I live in the West and when my son mentioned that USSR had built ice breakers with nuclear reactors on board, the school science teacher said that it's impossible. It's amazing what a socialist country can achieve : in 1945 third of the country was just ruins, in 1961 nuclear powered ice breakers, first satellite and first man in space.

less than 10 seconds in the video and you are already making radiation jokes 😂 this is why I love your videos!

4:19 Woah! Didn’t expect to see my university’s research reactor pop up in a YT video. The reactor doesn’t produce any usable energy, by the way, only heat. The mechanism shown above the water line is used to move the rods around, although that doesn’t happen often.

Imagine you chilling in borderless arctic snow desert, with screaming winds and meters and meters of rock solid ice under feet, casually waiting when this ship become to get you and your team aboard. So surreal :)

fun fact: the Bow of a ship is pronounced like ' to take a bow' with the same 'ow' sound as Hour.

This video's timing is a piece of art. Keep on the great work. All the success!

Great video , Keep up the good work . Would love to see a report about electronics industries in Kyrgyzstan , Kazakhstan , Uzbekistan , etc.. Perhaps one report to cover them all.

Great video - I especially appreciated the mentioning of the Finnish ice breaker(s).

If Soviet take economy seriously then we had most technologically advanced power . Space tech is pioneered by Soviet but people are blind to their achievements.

you always pick interesting topics, thx :)

keep up what you do. You are helping the humanity. I like how your delivery skills has improved since the first video.

Great video. Another earlier notable ice-breaker was the one the soviet-union (or maybe tsarist Russia back then) used on lake Baikal, which was a unique ice breaker-train ferry ship for hauling the trans siberia express across the lake.

It would be interesting if you did a video on the progression of transistor designs in microprocessors throughout time. Especially with the industry on the verge of switching to ribbon fets, it would be a very relevant video topic for this moment in time.

From calculators to icebreakers, chips to watches, this channel has it all!

you should have a million subs, your educational videos are very informative and well put together, nothing fancy just facts. thanks for sharing your knowledge.

Love puns. "It was rad", "crushing impact"... LOL well done.

I wasn't expecting a video about the 50 years of victory from you.

3:03 Finnish person here. "Urho" is "Hero" in Finnish.

Bow is pronounced like the gesture, not the weapon.

Great and informative video.

Very interesting, thank you 👍👍

Great video, thanks !

Interestingly, more than half of the world’s icebreakers have been manufactured in Finland. In addition to having manufactured them decades ago for the Soviet Union, Finland needs them itself, as all Finnish ports are subject to freezing in winter. Most countries that have freezing ports use Finnish icebreakers, but the USA, having bought none, is one of the exceptions. The operators there would like to buy them, as they are technologically advanced, but the USA classifies icebreakers as war ships (presumably just to protect the domestic industry), which makes importing them hard.

Incredible video as always. Just keep at it, and you will have well over a million subs. Perhaps even sooner than you realize.

Thank you and Much Love from the Philippines.

I always wished that Canada had gone a similar route with building massive nuclear ice breakers. I actually think the north is the perfect opportunity for Canada and Russia to try and find something that they can work together on. Collectively maintaining a safe and openly navigable artic waterway for commercial transportation. By doing this, a way to ease tensions and find one more way to work together. Collectively would create one of the most important global shortcuts.

Made me laugh within 10 seconds. Great job.

Nuclear icebreakers are rad and they have a crushing impact. I like these puns my dude.

Interesting that recently a Finland shipyard couldn’t get regulatory clearance to build a diesel icebreaker for a mining concern.

Anyone who lives in the arctic knows that the hysteria around global warming is overblown.

Very interesting, thank you!

Video is a great ice breaker on the subject.

Don't hold your breath waiting for the ice to disappear. It hasn't declined in years and they have stopped showing the records about how low it was in the early 1970s (and earlier in the 20th century).

Great video as always 😂😂

theres a hypothesis that Siberia will warm up and become the most burgeoning agricultural area on earth. Apparently Russia is already building some amount of infrastructure to prepare for that.

Jon Y. Thank you God send information with respect and admiration 🙏👍

Quite interesting topic. Wonder breaking huge chunks of ice into smaller - expedite thier melting or not??? Lastly, sarcism apart USSR was front runner in technology- most of time

The episode on icebreakers on Big, Bigger, Biggest is a must-watch. How it evolved into the tech we have now is crazy. Humans are OP.

FANTASTIC VIDEO

A bow on a ship. Wow. Bow.

Nice mention of the Toshiba 3D CNC machines. Illegally acquired? - hmm, let's say, illicitly obtained. The same way the US got its titanium from the Soviets for military uses.

That's what i was looking for!

Perhaps you should make a video about Kharkovchanka.

3:45 exactly the situation I would imagine a soviet nuclear ship from the inside

“And it was Rad” I see what you did there. 😄

hey baby is that an iceberg under there or are you just buoyant... I'll see myself out...

They even have floating nuclear power plants which make any arctic activity possible. I remember read somewhere on wikipedia that one of those icebreakers (I think arktica) where just bloated version of some swedish or finnish project, but can't find it now. There's interesting application for icebreakers in Canada, not only in St. Lawrence River but for mining operation in Nunavut and in the Northwest Territories. Mary River Mine is a very interesting story, even wikipedia page was very interesting especially for those who also like to read on Daewoo in Uzbekistan and alike. Is there already an episode on Arcelor acquisition by Mittal Steel?

At 0:07, is this radiation related pun intentional? Pretty great either way!

Kind of error, there's an art to icebreakers. Drop by one in Finland (if present and not powering something in south-america as often is the case), there's blowing air beneath the ice before going on top of ice and crushing it in certain situations, all-360 degree bridge (and propellers) in new ones.. Lots of cool stuff there. Several hulls, towing capability depending on ice-rating of ships an icebreaker helps. You need lanes because once you break the ice it freezes harder of course.

You missed one of key feature, how these operate. It use massive amount air to pump around under water ship.

2:45 A ship's bow rhymes with plow, not know 8:02 The CH in archipelago is pronounced K

"Lenin is powered by a 3100 ton nuclear plant" would have been a scary sentence to hear in 1917

We need to commercialize nuclear powered ships as soon as possible if we want to actually transition. Crazy that there's so much backlash against nuclear... The propaganda of oil decades ago really worked....

Numerous pronunciation mistakes. The front of a ship is the bow, but not pronounced as done here, but in the way the word is used to describe a performer acknowledging the audience's applause. The CH in "archipelago" is pronounced like a K. A sailing vessel the size of Lenin is called a ship not a boat.

Russia has a reputation of building really large things.... Antonov Cargo Planes, Moon Rocket, Ice Breakers bigger than many ships, heavy lift helicopters that can pick up the biggest helicopter from America. Gives them bragging rights. Oh yeah, their Moon Rocket blew up.

You shouldn’t denigrate steam power too much. Please note that nuclear icebreakers are ALSO steam powered. It just has nuclear fuel.

I give thumbs up, and it was rad

Love the video but can you maybe use a sponge or something on your microphone, the sharp inhalations are very jarring. Cheers

What a Beast of ships. Wonderful ships.👍👍👍 Wish i could sail in One of those., Just a dream ( for now), but who knows.

History and memes? My favorite things!

And they were rad lmfao

14:19 is the german polar research ship "Polarstern" which means "Polaris" in english

Very interesting job, but it would be nice for you to include the information sources you use to make the videos.

70 tons of fuel compered to 45 grams blew my find. It really puts in to perspective how powerful uranium is. The most powerful element in human history and we choose to phase it out. Maybe we should phase out coal powerplant before nuclear..

90% U235. Wow.

it's literally like the movie snow piercer except with a bunch of extra unfrozen water

I honestly don't understand why in our modern era. With our modern technology and advanced technology and knowledge. Why we don't make tons of nuclear powered ships? It's way better than fossil fuels. It's not even a close competition.

You're crushing it with those puns! 😂

"Alright everyone thanks for watching" Me: You're welcome.

A ship's 'bow' rhymes with 'cow' :) Muu-sic to my ears, this video

7:05 the map of the sea is a Dutch map. Who else on this planet would have maps of obscure parts of the world oceans. Go Dutch!

Love your video, but bow rhymes with cow. Unless of course you're firing an arrow out of it. Also, the ice will make it impassible

Ah, yes, the "Boh" of the ship. Not to be confused with the Steern, the Kewl, the Hool, the Starburst side, or the Part side.

A great, succesful design!

"crushing impact" no pun intended?

- You're using weapons-grade uranium in Lenin?!! Soviets in the 50s: - Weap... what? We just call that uranium.

meme game was strong in this video, well done

This is a good icebreaker if starting a conversation.

I'll walk into a room full of strangers, drop my trousers and excrete a brown log. Call it the Soviet Nuclear Icebreaker.

5 year old me from 1986 approves of the intro.

The newest generation has a not terribly memorable name and they should have kept the color theme of the Arktika. This red and black, it's just so good.

Icebreakers and crushing impact =comedy genious

Great stuff! Had a chance of being on Lenin :) Also you could have mentioned this beast of a boat : en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sevmorput - its a nuclear powered merchant ship capable of traveling in frozen waters.

So, what you're saying is that if you're hosting a party... these are the ships you would want to invite?

Did you say it burns 45 grams of oil at 06:23?

Note from the Pedantic Police: As previously mentioned by my esteemed colleague (see nxt Comment), when used in relation to ocean-going vessels, the "Proper Queen's English" pronunciation is indeed Bao ("Bow" or, the front of the ship); your pronunciation "Boe" = reference to the motive component used for propelling an arrow (thus, "Boe-and-AhRoe"/bow & arrow; pls pardon my amateurish efforts at phonetic spelling... it's not my strongest talent)... Additionally, Archipelago is said as "Ahr-kee-Pell-a- goe"; the "h" is silent (for some reason...honestly, English is littered with these archaic holdovers; seriously, people think learning Mandarin is challenging - only English has Rules on when/how to USE the bloody rules! That's Poms for you... ...except for The Queen, of course; obviously, QE 2nd is Special, God Bless Her/May She RIP...). Please do not perceive any of this as criticism; I find your vids very topical (how you manage that much research & prep EVERY WEEK is beyond me...) & reliably "on point", without even a sliver of American-style faff & B.S. If I wasn't just 2 steps away from being a complete penniless bum I'd love to support you beyond offering linguistic feedback. On a more relevant topic, though, I'm Australian & spent about 10 years working in the Taxi Industry (in Front Office & Admin roles; I've never actually been a Driver) in Perth, West Australia; I used to be personally acquainted/on first name basis with most of Perth's cabbies. Like anywhere else they were regular people living their lives... EXCEPT the majority of them were foreigners from Non-English speaking backgrounds. One thing I've never really understood is the long-simmering "national/ethnic antipathy" that's always existed between Australians & Indians (i.e. from India); seriously, it's definitely a 2-way thing as well. Could you do a video exploring where this comes from? Excellently produced video-essays, man. Professional & always informative; very watchable!