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Russia removed radioactive lighthouses from Arctic coast

Strontium-fuelled lighthouse (Fylkesmannen.no)

In the course of summer, Russia removed another 46 strontium-fuelled lighthouses from the coast of the White Sea and the Barents and Kara Seas. With Norwegian project support, Russia has now removed 180 radioactive lighthouses between Murmansk and the Novaya Zemlya and replaced them with solar cell installations.

Location

Strontium-fuelled lighthouse (Fylkesmannen.no)The 46 lighthouses were all sent to the VNIITFA institute in Moscow, Rosbaltnord.ru reports with reference to RIA Novosti. Another 11 lighthouses will be brought from the island of Vaigach to Moscow next summer.

The lighthouses have for decades been guiding vessels operating along Russia’s Arctic coast. The last 46 lighthouses removed this summer where taken from the coast of the White Sea, the Barents Sea and the Kara Sea. Some of them had been placed on the islands of Kolguyev, Vaigach and Novaya Zemlya. Since 2001, a total of 180 lighthouses have been removed from the coast, 153 of which have been decommissioned.

The process of removing the strontium installations with modern solar energy lighthouses has been going on since 2001. Norway has allocated up to 180 million NOK to the project, which from the Norwegian side has been followed up from the Finnmark County Governor’s office.

There are now only few lighthouses left to be removed. The Finnmark County Governor has been allocated 75 million NOK of fresh funding for the job.

That sum also includes operations in the Andreeva Bay, Russia’s biggest dump site for spent nuclear fuel, a press release from the County Governor reads.

Solar energy lighthouse (Fylkesmannen.no)

Photos: Per Einar Fiskebeck, Finnmark County Governor’s office