As Russia begins its two-year chairmanship of the Arctic Council, Bellona supports an international response to raising nuclear submarines and other radioactive debris scuttled by the Soviet Union in Arctic seas.

In a letter to council members sent this week, Bellona wrote that it “sincerely believes that the period of the Russian Federation’s chairmanship of the Arctic Council can and should become a new stage in fruitful cooperation between the Arctic countries to bring the Arctic seas to a safe condition.”

The organization wrote further that recovering and disposing of radioactive waste and nuclear submarines dumped in the waters surrounding the North Pole would be “not only to Russia’s benefit, but the benefit of all participating countries” that make up the seven-nation council.

To accomplish this, Bellona urges the council to adopt what it calls the “Safe Arctic Waters,” project, which would facilitate engineering surveys of the seabed where the waste lies, as well as galvanize international funding and expertise around its retrieval.

Read the letter