Rosatom completes first RITM-200 reactor for Leningrad icebreaker

Rosatom has finished the first RITM-200 reactor unit for the Leningrad nuclear icebreaker at ZiO-Podolsk, and the number matters as much as the hardware. World Nuclear News said it is the 11th RITM-200 built at the plant so far, a sign that Rosatom’s machine-building base is now turning out a standardized marine reactor module on a repeatable production line.

That is the real story behind the milestone. The unit is not just a completed component, but another piece in a serial reactor pipeline that feeds Project 22220 icebreakers and, increasingly, other nuclear platforms. The Leningrad itself was laid down in St Petersburg on 26 January 2024, with Vladimir Putin attending the ceremony, and it is the sixth vessel in the Project 22220 series. Each ship carries two RITM-200 pressurised-water reactors, so every completed unit pushes the class closer to delivery.

Rosatom says the reactor is 7.3 metres high and 3.3 metres in diameter. Its thermal rating is 175 MW, which translates to about 30 MW at the propellers, with a stated service life of 40 years. In icebreaker terms, that package is built for endurance as much as power. Rosatomflot describes Project 22220 as the world’s largest and most powerful nuclear icebreaker class, with a widened 34-metre hull, compared with 30 metres on the older Arktika-type boats, and the ability to escort tankers of up to 100,000 tonnes and break ice up to three metres thick.

The completion at ZiO-Podolsk also points to a broader industrial cadence. Another 15 RITM reactor units are already in production for icebreakers, land-based SMR plants and floating power units, including the broader Arctic power chain that has already put the Akademik Lomonosov floating plant into full commercial exploitation. Rosatom says the manufacturing process ends with test assembly, where components are fitted in their design positions to tight tolerances before shipment and installation in the hull. The second reactor for Leningrad is already being prepared for hydraulic testing.

For Rosatom, that is the strategic value of the milestone: not a single reactor finished, but proof that marine reactors are coming off a line with enough discipline, throughput and quality control to keep Arctic deliveries moving and leave room for the same technology family to serve other nuclear deployments.