Russia’s Maritime Nuclear Fleet: A Glimpse Behind the Curtain

This week on Decouple, I sit down with Aleksey Rezvoi, a veteran maritime nuclear engineer who began his career in the Soviet Union designing third- and fourth-generation submarine and icebreaker reactors before later working in the U.S. nuclear sector.

We explore the hidden history and living reality of Russia’s civilian nuclear fleet—a line that began with the icebreaker Lenin in 1959 and continues today with the RITM-200, the world’s only serially produced small modular reactor.

From Arctic logistics and reactor design philosophy to advanced fuels and industrial ecosystems, Rezvoi offers a rare insider’s view of what the West misses when it talks about “maritime nuclear.”