Russia's Nornickel Automates Monitoring of Permafrost

MOSCOW, (Sputnik) - Russian metals producer Norilsk Nickel (Nornickel) said on Thursday that it had launched a new project to ensure constant automated monitoring of permafrost soils to ensure the security of its buildings in arctic conditions.

The control room receiving all data of the monitoring system of Nornickel buildings online was set up in Norilsk. The system is expected to be put into commercial operation later this month, the company said in a statement.

"The purpose of the monitoring project is to provide continuous automated monitoring of the temperature of permafrost soils of foundations and the deformation behavior of building structures of foundations, as well as temperature and humidity conditions in technical underground," the statement read.

The monitoring will allow for the safe operation of industrial facilities, and, potentially, residential infrastructure, to detect potentially dangerous defects.

The first stage of the project involved 165 facilities, including administrative and residential complexes, and industrial buildings at the mines.

In general, the company has drilled 416 wells; equipped 340 buildings and structures with sensors responding to changes in soil temperature at the base of buildings; installed 716 inclinometers to monitor the deformation behavior of foundations of all types; set up 49 sensors recording humidity and temperature at facilities with technical underground.