ST. PETERSBURG, January 26. /TASS/. Russian President Vladimir Putin has given the go-ahead to start construction on the nuclear icebreaker Leningrad.

The keel-laying ceremony for the fifth-generation universal nuclear icebreaker, part of Project 22220, took place at the Baltic Shipyard. In addition to the president, the head of Rosatom Alexey Likhachev, the head of VTB Andrey Kostin, the speaker of the Federation Council Valentina Matvienko and the governor of St. Petersburg Alexander Beglov were all in attendance.

"I’m asking you to give permission to install a tonnage board on the first compartment of the future nuclear icebreaker Leningrad," Andrey Kostin, Chairman of the Board of Directors of the United Shipbuilding Corporation, said to Putin.

"Let it be done," Putin replied.

On instructions from the head of state, they picked up screwdrivers and tightened the bolts securing the tonnage board to the first section of the future icebreaker.

About the icebreaker

The nuclear icebreaker Leningrad will be 173.3 m long and 34 m wide. The ship has a height of 52 m, with a design waterline draft 10.5 m high, a minimum operating draft that is 9.2 m in height, and its displacement is 33,540 tons.

This icebreaker is designed to last for 40 years. The ship is manned by a crew of 52 people.

The nuclear-powered ship is equipped with a two-reactor power plant with the main source of steam from the RITM-200 reactor having a capacity of 175 MW. Project 22220 icebreakers are the largest and most powerful (60 MW) nuclear icebreakers in the world.