Scrap con­tai­ning PCB, espe­cial­ly con­den­sa­tors from electric instal­la­ti­ons, have been remo­ved by the Rus­si­an mining com­pa­ny Trust Ark­ti­ku­gol from the sett­le­ments of Pyra­mi­den (aban­do­ned in 1998) and Bar­ents­burg. The items have been deli­ve­r­ed to Lon­gye­ar­by­en for dis­po­sal. Pyra­mi­den is now belie­ved to be lar­ge­ly free of rele­vant mate­ri­als; work in Bar­ents­burg will be continued.The items deli­ve­r­ed recent­ly con­tain about 30 kg of high­ly toxic PCBs. Coope­ra­ti­on is working very well, accord­ing to Nor­we­gi­an aut­ho­ri­ties, who are hap­py about the results achie­ved so far: a poten­ti­al source for future con­ta­mi­na­ti­on of the envi­ron­ment with dan­ge­rous sub­s­tan­ces has been lar­ge­ly remo­ved, and fur­ther pro­gress is expec­ted for the near future.

Addi­tio­nal­ly, light ele­ments con­tai­ning mer­cu­ry have been remo­ved.

In sum­mer 2007, hig­her PCB con­cen­tra­ti­ons have been detec­ted near the sett­le­ments in Spits­ber­gen, espe­cial­ly near the Rus­si­an ones. 

Source: Sys­sel­man­nen