"Next year, the work will continue - we plan to have about 600 tonnes of bulk scrap metal removed," the press service said in a release. "For the work to collect and transport it to the coastline we will use heavy duty vehicles - this is what we have been discussing with the Russian Ministry of Defense."

A similar situation develops in the north-eastern part of the Heiss Island, the Franz Josef Land Archipelago, where the amount of scrap metal is estimated between 150 and 200 tonnes. The authorities have been negotiating with companies, which can collect and transport bulk scrap metal from the Arctic latitudes. A most convenient variant could be to hire the RSV Mikhail Somov. The authorities have reached preliminary accord with the Hydrometeorology Service’s Northern Department.

Every autumn, the Mikhail Somov delivers fuel, food, materials for aerology studies, construction materials and other cargo to the stations on the Vaygach, the Northern Land, the Izvestiya, the TsIK, and other islands up to the Chukchi Sea, all the way to the Wrangel Island. In November, when the ship twice was trapped in the ice, TASS correspondent Vera Kostamo was onboard. On December 1, the ship returned to Arkhangelsk, the home port.

According to Minister for Development of the Far East and Arctic Alexei Chekunov, cleanup missions will continue throughout the country’s all nine Arctic regions. Works will be organized at 52 locations, where the total amount of waste is more than 140 million tonnes. "Within one year, of course, it would not be possible to remove this waste. At least, we realize the scale of the task we are facing," the press service quoted the minister as saying.

Over the going year, under the Clean Arctic project, volunteers, local residents have collected more than 1,500 tonnes of waste - barrels with fuel, tires, plastic objects, and wood. The cleanup missions have been organized in the Murmansk, Arkhangelsk, Krasnoyarsk, Yakutia, Yamalo-Nenets, Nenets, Komi and Karelia regions. More than 2,200 volunteers have participated in the project.

Source: https://tass.com/economy/1381467.