MOSCOW, August 2. /TASS/. The Clean Arctic - Vostok-77 expedition completed work to map the USSR economic heritage facilities in the Arctic. Almost 400 objects in seven regions will have to be removed. Chukotka and Yakutia are leaders in cleaning, the expedition's press service told TASS.
"We have mapped abandoned facilities that may cause pollution," the press service quoted head of the expedition cartographic group Stanislav Lachininsky as saying. "Those are abandoned mines, airfields, port facilities where still remain equipment, fuel tanks and various reagents. We have mapped the total of 393 facilities in seven Arctic regions that require disposal, and, in addition to them, 311 sites where the disposal has been carried out by regions or federal ministries."
For example, Yakutia and Chukotka have the largest share of recycled objects or the objects, which owners have been identified, and where cleaning has started. Those two regions lead in the number of removed facilities that pose a potential environmental hazard. Scientists from the Russian Academy of Sciences' three institutes and from the St. Petersburg State University have worked on the map. The expedition participants have developed various methods for calculating equipment and structures that need to be transported along the Northern Sea Route or by land transport, since they cannot be disposed of right on site.
"In Yakutia and Chukotka, more than 50% of discovered objects were removed before 2024. This suggests that in the first quarter of the 21st century, we can expect the disposal and conservation of one in two potentially hazardous abandoned facilities in the Russian Arctic. The sea transport accounts for at least 400,000 tons of metal structures and equipment. This means the Northern Sea Route development is a very important process for improving the environmental situation in the Arctic, since the Northern Sea Route means a big amount of environmentally hazardous objects will be realistically transported from coastal facilities," he added.
The Clean Arctic - Vostok-77 expedition of the Russian Academy of Sciences' institutes started from Murmansk in August 2023. It has been involved in studies in the interests of several research groups on routes running through the Arctic, Northern Siberia and the Far East. TASS is the expedition's general information partner.