From October 1 to November 6, Russian scientists will study the condition of flooded nuclear objects in the bays of Novaya Zemlya, said Vladimir Shevchenko, Acting Director of the Institute of Oceanology of the Russian Academy of Sciences.
Scientists from the Institute of Oceanology of the Russian Academy of Sciences and the Kurchatov Institute under the leadership of Academician Mikhail Flint are taking part in the expedition. They plan to assess the threat of radioactive contamination of waters during the research.
"Work will be carried out both on the ecology of the northern seas and on the assessment of pollution of individual bays of Novaya Zemlya, where dangerous objects were dumped at one time. We will look for increased radioactivity, study the condition of these objects. We have underwater unmanned vehicles at our disposal that conduct video recording and sampling. Thanks to them, many objects that were considered lost were found," Shevchenko said.
From 1965 to 1991, many radioactive objects were buried in the bays of the eastern shore of Novaya Zemlya and the Novaya Zemlya Depression, including the reactor of the icebreaker Lenin and the nuclear submarine K-27.
In total, more than 24,000 objects are included in the register of underwater potentially dangerous objects flooded in the internal waters and territorial sea of Russia, goarctic.ru notes.
Novaya Zemlya is an archipelago in the Arctic Ocean between the Barents and Kara Seas, part of the Arkhangelsk Region of Russia as the Novaya Zemlya Administrative District and in the status of the Novaya Zemlya urban district.
Alex Shishlo for Rough&Polished
