 The icebreaker was in the Kara Sea when the blaze erupted, and was sent to Murmansk.After 33 years of reliable icebreaking, having become the first surface ship to reach the North Pole in 1977, and the first civilian ship to spend more than a year at sea without making port in 2000, and covering more than a million nautical miles by 2005, "Arktika" was retired in October 2008.She is docked at Atomflot, the nuclear base and dock in Murmansk, away from the main docks, where she will remain until policies can be drawn up to dismantle her.