Evacuation of Personnel from Russian Polar Stations to Begin in Mid-June – Minister

May 28, 2013 JRL Russia List Arctic, Environment, Science, Technology, Engineering

File Photo of Polar Bear on Ice and Snow with Water Nearby

(Interfax – MOSCOW, May 27, 2013) The personnel of the SP-40 weather station, based on a split ice floe in the Arctic Ocean will be evacuated in mid-June, Natural Resources Minister Sergei Donskoi told reporters on Monday.

An icebreaker will depart from Murmansk to collect the personnel and equipment. “If the mission goes as planned and the Yamal icebreaker keeps moving, the personnel, equipment, and fuel and lubricants will be evacuated in mid-June,” he said, adding that the Yamal will leave Murmansk on May 31.

Donskoi said that the station will be closed down several months ahead of schedule. “Previously, we had been planning to collect the personnel in August-September,” the minister said.

“There is no risk of an emergency evacuation. The Yamal, as we have planned, is to approach the ice at a distance of some 600 kilometers from the station and it will use helicopters if necessary to evacuate the personnel. So we will be able to collect people seven days after the Yamal departs from the port,” Donskoi said.

“There is one more option, just in case, when we will have to reach a deal with our Canadian colleagues. But talks with the Canadians and their getting ready will last the same amount of time – seven days. So we hope to do the job on our own thus far,” he said.

The evacuation will hopefully proceed as planned. The icebreaker and the evacuation team have been readied, he added.

Part of the SP-40 personnel and equipment will be switched to the station based on Cape Baranov on Novaya Zemlya Island, he said. “Ten people will be moved to Cape Baranov where a station was built in the 1980s. The station will be reopened, work will be re-launched and our presence will be maintained. The remaining six will be moved to the mainland,” he said.

The SP-40 station was opened on an ice floe with an area of 10 square kilometers. Cracks ran through the ice floe when warming began, The station is now located on an ice floe measuring 100-150 square meters, which necessitated an urgent evacuation of the personnel.