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Kapitan Dranitsyn icebreaker to take 400 scientists to Arctic in expedition

The research program is to include 40 complex studies

MOSCOW, September 11. /TASS/. An ambitious expedition onboard the Kapitan Dranitsyn icebreaker will begin in the Arctic in 2020, department director at the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment, Sergei Khrushchev said.

"The Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment has been working on a project, initiated by the prime minister and Artur Chilingarov [a scientist, an associate member of the Russian Academy of Scientists — TASS], to develop a new-type of a drifting station, which will use the Kapitan Dranitsyn icebreaker, frozen into the ice," he stated.

The Kapitan Dranitsyn is scheduled to depart in September 2020. Presently, the Russian government studies the expedition’s program, drafted by the ministry, he added.

"The expedition plans an unprecedented research program — more than 40 complex studies in eight sections," he said. "The project features 20 research institutions — the Russian Academy of Scientists, Rosatom, the Healthcare Ministry, Roshydromet, the Kurchatov Institute and five universities — in all more than 400 scientists."

The expedition is to provide for complex and years-long studies in the Arctic, he added.

Eight icebreakers are operating in waters of the Northern Sea Route. These are four nuclear-powered icebreakers (the 50 Let Pobedy, the Yamal, the Taimyr, and the Vaygach) and four diesel-powered icebreakers (the Admiral Makarov, the Krasin, the Kapitan Khlebnikov and the Kapitan Dranitsyn).

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