On August 19, started the third stage of the ecological expedition of the Russian Geographical Society to clean up the Russian Arctic from man-made pollution. Scientists of the Russian Geographical Society, military personnel of the environmental platoon of the Northern Fleet, and volunteers will continue to clean Kildin Island in the Barents Sea from metal structures.
The first stage of the expedition "Arctic: Spring Cleaning" took place in June on Kildin in the Murmansk Region. In the 1990s, the Soviet military garrison was disbanded here. As a result, metal equipment, machines, and wire are polluting the fragile Arctic nature. The task of the Russian Geographical Society and the Northern Fleet is to compactly gather and remove man-made objects from the island. The second stage is the work on the Far Eastern Wrangel Island, where the participants are collecting large fuel and lubricants barrels left over from Soviet military bases and monitor the ecological state of the island.
The third stage of the expedition will take place on Kildin with the support of “Kolatomenergoremont” (branch of “Atomenergoremont” JSC, subsidiary of “Concern Rosenergoatom” JSC). In 2022, the participants plan to take out at least 300 tons of scrap metal. Specialists will cut large-sized metal structures using plasma and gas metal cutting equipment. Pressed scrap will be loaded into vessels of the Kola Flotilla and delivered to a port in Murmansk for further disposal.
Ecological expedition "Arctic: Spring Cleaning" includes cleaning and exploration of polar territories. Based on the results of the "spring cleaning", it is planned to create an up-to-date electronic ecological map of the Arctic, which will be updated with new data on this strategically important zone for Russia.
Natalya Sadovsky