ARKHANGELSK, June 17. /TASS/. The expedition of the Russian Hydro-Meteorological Service onboard the Ivan Petrov scientific research vessel returned to Arkhangelsk, the service reported. Scientists sampled water and soil near the Kildin Island, where the K-159 submarine sank, and also conducted research at different areas of the Barents and White Seas.
"The Russian Hydro-Meteorological Service's Arctic expedition onboard the Ivan Petrov scientific research vessel has finished. For more than two weeks, specialists from the Northern Department and from Typhoon, the service's leading organization in radiation monitoring, were working as the expedition continued in the White and Barents Seas. The main tasks were to collect the marine environment data to assess possible consequences from its contamination with radioactive products from the K-159 nuclear submarine, which sank in the Barents Sea near the Kildin Island, as well as to perform summer hydrological and hydro-chemical surveys of the White Sea," the service said.
During the voyage, specialists sampled water at different depths, sediments and biota at several points, and conducted operational radiometric monitoring. The expedition carried out comprehensive studies at three century-old oceanographic sections - rows of consecutive points located along a specific route, and at seven oceanographic stations, sampled water for radioactive contamination in the strait, basin and Dvina Bay of the White Sea, and soil at ten points in the Severodvinsk area.
"According to results of operational radiometric monitoring of the samples, the radiation background is within the normal range. Most water and soil samples will be tested at stationary laboratories of the Northern Department and at Typhoon," said Alexander Solomatov, scientific assistant to the ship's captain, an ocean studies expert at the Department of Hydrometeorology of the Northern Department.
The expedition featured ocean studies' students from the Russian State Hydrometeorological University, the St. Petersburg State University, and the Northern Arctic Federal University.
K-159 is a Soviet nuclear submarine of the Kit 627A project. She sank on August 30, 2003 near the Kildin Island while being towed for disposal.