The wintering complex at the Antarctic station “Vostok” is planned to be commissioned ahead of schedule

The construction of a new wintering complex of the Russian scientific Antarctic station “Vostok” is planned to be completed ahead of schedule. The Minister of Natural Resources and Ecology of the Russian Federation Alexander Kozlov spoke about this at the international forum “Days of the Arctic and Antarctic in Moscow-2022”held by Kommersant Publishing House.

“We recently talked with our partner, NOVATEK, its founders. They participate in this construction 60% to 40%. We will try to meet deadlines and commission the station much earlier than expected,” the minister said. However, he did not name specific dates, noting only: “We will try, God forbid, to succeed.” Now the project provides for the commissioning of the complex in 2025.

“There will be a five-story new building. So that you understand, now there is a hut in which it is impossible to spend the winter. The current station was last reconstructed in 1982, it is obsolete, everything is covered with snow. The new complex is designed for extreme conditions, it is modular, each complex can work autonomously. There will be laboratories with scientific equipment, a medical unit with the possibility of conducting operations, living rooms and recreation areas. For the first time, a system for cleaning and mineralization of water is provided for at the station. 35 scientists can live and work there at the same time,” said Mr. Kozlov.

According to the minister, Vostok is of geopolitical importance, since world-class research will be carried out at the station: “We will be able to reconstruct the climate and gas composition of the Earth’s atmosphere over the past one and a half million years and obtain new data on the role of greenhouse gases in global climate change.”