On September 25-28, the 3rd international conference Materials, Technology, and Equipment for the Development of the Arctic and Siberia will be held at Tomsk State University. Participants will be experts from leading research centers who will present the developments necessary for the extraction of natural resources in regions with difficult climatic conditions. The organizers of the conference are TSU, the All-Russian Scientific Research Institute of Aviation Materials (VIAM), the Ministry of Industry and Trade, the Ministry of Education and Science, the Russian Academy of Sciences, and the Foundation for Advanced Research.
Within the Arctic, there are regions, continental shelves, and exclusive economic zones of eight Arctic states - Russia, Canada, the USA (Alaska), Norway, Denmark (Greenland and the Faroe Islands), Finland, Sweden, and Iceland. The Russian Federation has the greatest length of borders in the Arctic.
- Siberia and the Arctic have a significant part of the energy sources and other minerals whose extraction is strategically important for Russia,- says Irina Kurzina, one of the organizers of the conference, director of the StrAU Institute Smart Materials and Technologies. - However, the extraction of these resources is complicated by harsh climatic conditions, so efficiency depends on the availability of materials and technologies that have an increased margin of safety.
The latest developments in the creation of new materials with increased wear resistance (polymers, composites, and new coatings), the results of tests of materials and devices in cold climates, and technologies for the extraction and transportation of raw materials from the Arctic and Siberia will be presented at the conference. Much attention will be paid to environmental factors in the development of the Arctic and Siberia.
- When developing resources that are so important for Russia, it is necessary to minimize the human impact on the environment, - says Lyudmila Borilo, director of the StrAU TSSW Siberian Institute of the Future. - The Arctic ecosystems are extremely sensitive to any interventions, therefore, the creation and use of such tools that, on one hand, will help efficient mining of minerals, and on the other, will not upset the natural balance, is a priority. There will be a section of the conference devoted to environmental factors in which participants will discuss various approaches to the development of resources, possible anthropogenic risks, and ways to minimize them.
The program of the conference here http://arctic-siberia.tsu.ru/en/