MOSCOW, October 20. /TASS/. The territory of the Russian Arctic National Park in the Arkhangelsk Region needs more than 9,000 tonnes of waste to be removed. According to results of geo-ecology studies, the waste is located mostly on the Franz Josef Land Archipelago, the park’s Director Alexander Kirilov said on Tuesday.
"Right now, in the park still remain slightly more than 9,000 tonnes of waste, which must be removed," he said. "How can we know this with certainty? Back in 2017, we made a geo-ecology survey of the territory to see how much waste had been removed, and how much is still there. <…> Those 9,000 tonnes need to be removed from the park."
The cleanup on Franz Josef Land began in 2012. Between 2012 and 2017, more than 45,000 tonnes of waste were removed from the archipelago. According to results of the geo-ecology survey, conducted in 2017, the cleanup had been completed by about 89%. Practically completed were missions on the Alexandra Land, the Hooker, the Heiss and the Graham Bell Islands. Cleanup is due on the Rudolf and the Hoffman Islands.
The Rosneft Company and the Russian Arctic National Park began the Clean Arctic joint comprehensive project in 2019. It continued in 2020. The project’s task is to estimate the pollution of the Franz Josef Land after the USSR’s development of the Arctic. The works to analyze oil-contaminated soils on the islands, where the cleanup had been conducted, continued in August, 2021.
About Russian Arctic National Park
The Russian Arctic National Park is Eurasia’s northernmost and Russia’s biggest nature reserve. It includes the Franz Josef Land archipelago and the northern part of the Novaya Zemlya archipelago. Tourists may visit the national park traveling on board cruise ships along the Northern Sea Route on the return voyage from Spitsbergen to Franz Josef Land, or on a nuclear icebreaker, which calls on Franz Josef Land during a cruise to the North Pole.