Nornickel to implement permafrost monitoring system at hydraulic facilities
KRASNOYARSK, October 9. /TASS/. The Norilsk Nickel Company plans to implement by mid-2025 at its hydraulic facilities systems to monitor the permafrost conditions, the company Polar Division's Deputy Chief Engineer Anton Pryamitsky told TASS at the Yenisei RF media forum.
"We have equipped all the hazardous production facilities of NTEK (Norilsk Nickel's subsidiary - TASS) with sensors," he said. "We have been equipping our hydraulic structures, that is, tailings dumps."
"We plan to finish this work by mid-2025," he added.
The company has invested 2 billion rubles ($20 million) in the new monitoring system, he continued, adding the plan would be to expand and improve the program. "It's not just a set of sensors, it's already a set of business processes, an ecosystem. We organize visual inspections, complex inspections by specialized organizations, and drilling. It is an exhaustive complex of works related to buildings," he said. The used software and equipment are domestic, he added.
In May, 2020, a fuel tank collapsed at the Norilsk CHPP-3 of the Norilsk-Taimyr Energy Company, releasing 21,000 tons of oil products. One of the versions says the accident could have occurred due to global climatic changes caused by the so-called soil heating. The company has been implementing a permafrost monitoring program.
The 11th inter-regional media forum Yenisei PF ran in Krasnoyarsk on October 5-6. The event featured more than 40 federal experts, including TASS representatives.
