YAKUTSK, September 26. /TASS/. The Clean Arctic environmental project plans for 2025 a mission to collect scrap metal in the village of Chersky in Yakutia's north-east, next to the border with Chukotka, the region's Governor Aisen Nikolayev said.
"The Clean Arctic project began in 2021," the governor said. "Yakutia has participated actively in the Bulunsky District - in Tiksi. The project will continue in other settlements. In Chersky it will begin in 2025."
In Tiksi Bay (Laptev Sea's southern part - TASS), there still remain 18 abandoned ships, he said. However, the region has managed to cope with an environmental disaster threat - the fracture of the old ship Dnepr, from which oil could have leaked. The oil waste was drained onto it since the 1980s and 1990s. "The abandoned ship remained in Tiksi Bay. Due to the time and natural phenomena, the ship began to break apart, and we faced a dangerous situation where dozens of tons of accumulated oil waste could get into Tiksi Bay," he continued.
The local authorities attracted scientists to cope with the threat. Currently, there is no direct threat of oil products' leakage. "We've cleaned up all the leftovers. Further on, the ship is harmless, and yet scrap metal cannot be left anywhere," he added.
The Clean Arctic project began in 2021. Captain of the 50 Let Pobedy nuclear-powered Arctic-class icebreaker Dmitry Lobusov, and Gennady Antokhin, Captain on FESCO’s ships from 1982 to 2012, are the project’s authors. Clean Arctic has developed into a platform uniting public and volunteer organizations, scientists, governors and businesses.