Russian servicemen removed about 1,300 tons of scrap metal from the Arctic

Environmental clean-up units under the Russian Defense Ministry have collected about 1,300 tons of scrap metal in the Arctic and prepared them for export to the mainland, according to Deputy Defense Minister General of the Army Mikhail Bulgakov.

“We plan to remove 4,561 tons of scrap metal and return 71.4 hectares of land in 2016,” he said. “This year we are working in four regions, including the Novaya Zemlya archipelago, the Kotelny and Wrangel islands, as well as the Krasnoyarsk Territory, the area of ​​operation of the Northern Fleet, the military district of Central and Eastern Europe and at storage and maintenance facilities for nuclear weapons,” said Michael Bulgakov.

About 200 service personnel are conducting clean-up operations in the Arctic, he said. On Kotelny Island alone, the military pressed more than 14 thousand 200-liter metal barrels to be sent to the mainland.

"This scrap metal will be loaded by means of the Northern and Pacific fleets, as well as on board specially chartered ships that deliver cargo to the Far North," the deputy minister added. With the help of hydraulic presses, thin-walled barrels are reduced tenfold in volume and thick-walled barrels three to four times. Maintenance personnel will continue to work until the end of September and Arctic cleanup operations are due to end in 2020.