Navigation engineer Marina Starovoitova has been named captain of a Russian nuclear-powered icebreaker, state nuclear energy corporation Rosatom has announced. Starovoitova is the first woman to hold that position, Rosatom said. She was officially appointed on August 20 during a ceremony in Nizhny Novgorod that marked the 80th anniversary of Russia’s nuclear energy industry. The evening event, “Era of Dreamers,” was attended by about 30,000 spectators, including more than 20,000 employees of Rosatom.

Advancing its efforts to develop the Arctic and establish new energy markets, Russia launched a new nuclear-powered icebreaker, the Yakutia, in St. Petersburg during a November 22 ceremony. At the launching in the northern Russian port city, the Russian flag was raised on another nuclear icebreaker, the Ural. Overseeing the events via video link from the Kremlin, Russian president Vladimir Putin said that the icebreakers “were laid down as part of a large serial project and are part of our large-scale, systematic work to reequip and replenish the domestic icebreaker fleet, to strengthen Russia's status as a great Arctic power.”