Yamal (icebreaker)

For other uses, see Yamal.

Yamal icebreaker Yamal on a 1994 joint expedition with the NSF
Career (Russia)
Name:	Yamal
Namesake:	Yamal Peninsula
Laid down:	1986
Launched:	October 1992
General characteristics
Class and type:	Arktika-class icebreaker
Displacement:	23,455 tons
Length:	150 m (490 ft); 136 m (446 ft) at waterline
Beam:	30 m (98 ft); 28 m (92 ft) at waterline
Height:	55 m (180 ft) keel to mast head
Draft:	11.08 m (36.4 ft)
Propulsion:	2 x OK-900 171 MW nuclear reactors; 2 x steam turbines driving 6 generators, total 75,000 hp (55.3 MW)
Speed:	22 kn (41 km/h; 25 mph); 19.5 kn (36.1 km/h; 22.4 mph) Cruising speed
Boats and landing craft carried:	Zodiac boats
Capacity:	Passengers: 100, in 50 cabins and mini-suites
Complement:	150
Aircraft carried:	1 x Mil Mi-2 or Mil Mi-8 helicopter

The NS Yamal (Russian: Яма́л) is a Russian Arktika class nuclear powered icebreaker operated by the Murmansk Shipping Company. It is named after the Yamal Peninsula in Northwest Siberia; the name means End of the Land in Nenets.

Laid down in Leningrad in 1986, and launched in October 1992, after the end of communism in Russia, she never filled her designed role of keeping shipping lanes open. She has always carried passengers on arctic excursions. Yamal took an excursion to the North Pole to celebrate the Millennium. Yamal is the 12th surface ship ever to reach the north pole.^{[citation needed]}

The Yamal is equipped with a double hull. The outer hull is 48 mm thick where ice is met and 25 mm elsewhere and has a polymer coating to reduce friction. There is water ballast between the inner and outer hulls which can be shifted in order to aid icebreaking. Icebreaking is also assisted by an air bubbling system which can deliver 24 m³/s of air from jets 9 m below the surface. The Yamal can break ice while making way either forwards or backwards.

Yamal is one of the Russian "Arctic" family of icebreakers, the most powerful icebreakers in the world. These ships must cruise in cold water to cool their reactors, so they cannot pass through the tropics to undertake voyages in the Southern hemisphere.

Yamal carries one helicopter and several Zodiac boats. Radio and satellite communications systems are installed which can provide navigation, telephone, fax, and email services. Amenities include a large dining room (capable of holding all 100 passengers in one sitting), a library, passenger lounge, auditorium, volleyball court, gymnasium, heated indoor swimming pool, a sauna, and an infirmary. She is equipped with 50 passenger cabins and suites, all with toilets, exterior windows, a television, and a desk.

File:Nuclearicebreakeryamal.jpg

Yamal on its way to the North Pole, 2001

Incidents and accidents

Fire

On 23 December 1996, a crew member was killed when a fire broke out on board the icebreaker. The nuclear reactor powering the ship was not affected by the fire. The crew extinguished the blaze within 30 minutes.

Collision

On March 16th, 2009 Yamal collided with the product tanker MT Indiga in Yenisei Gulf in the Kara Sea. While the tanker suffered a 9.5-meter crack on the main deck, no damage was reported for Yamal.

Events

North Pole-36 and North Pole-37

From August to September 2009 the ice breaker took part in the scheduled evacuation of drifting ice stations. Each station houses 18 polar explorers, dogs, and more than 150 tons of cargo. The evacuation of station personnel and cargo from a drifting ice floe requires three days of continuous, round-the-clock work. This high-latitude Arctic work was supervised by expedition leader Vladimir Sokolov.

External links

Media related to IMO 9077549 at Wikimedia Commons

• Cool Antarctica web page devoted to Yamal
• Video taken on board the Yamal in 2001 taking tourists to the North Pole