TASS, February 16. The system to monitor emissions in Norilsk (the Krasnoyarsk Region’s north) will be commissioned fully by summer, 2022, the Norilsk Nickel Company’s Vice President on ecology and industrial safety Stanislav Seleznev told a news conference on Wednesday.
In autumn, 2021, the company signed an agreement with the Russian Ecology Operator. Under the project, an emission control system in the city was launched in pilot mode.
"We have installed 16 stations in Norilsk," the company’s representative said. "The station is a weather station and a few emission sensors, including those to identify Sulphur dioxide."
"The system has been working in the test mode, <…> and over the winter we have tested it in extremely low temperatures," he said, adding the system of the kind is unique for Russia. In spring, specialists will analyze how the system has been working.
"In spring, we will see how the system works, how accurate it is; we will compare the data with Hydrometcenter (the national hydro-meteorology service), with the data from our mobile laboratories, and by late spring or early summer we hope to have the system working fully," he said, adding the city portal will publish the air conditions, including in an application.
"Any person in the country will be able to see all information about the air conditions in Norilsk," the vice president added, saying the company plans to launch a similar monitoring system in the Murmansk Region’s Monchegorsk.
In 2021, in the Norilsk Industrial District the company cut Sulphur dioxide emissions by 14% or 251,000 tonnes, he said in conclusion.
Under the Clean Air federal program, companies working in Norilsk and Krasnoyarsk have been implementing investment projects to cut harmful emissions into the atmosphere. Nornickel (the Norilsk Nickel Company) implements the Northern Project to cut Sulphur dioxide by 45% in 2023 and by 90% in 2025 against the emissions registered in 2015.