 Originally designed for 100,000 hours of reactor life, "Arktika"s service life was prolonged another 50,000 hours in 2000, and another 25,000 hours after that, adding eight years to a 25-year planned service life.The life extension was accomplished by means of replacing critical equipment to allow the safe and continued operation of the nuclear plant.On May 17, 2000, a conference of Russian engineers, scientists, and government officials took place on board "Arktika" after her first service extension.