Seventy high school students from different nations will navigate thousands of kilometers through the Arctic Ocean’s ice to reach the top of the world
Dozens of schoolchildren from Russia and other countries will travel to the North Pole in August aboard a nuclear icebreaker as part of a science project, the organizers said on Tuesday.
The Arctic expedition is a culmination of a worldwide science endeavor, “The Icebreaker of Knowledge.” The project is aimed at finding and supporting gifted children around the world. Its 70 winners, schoolchildren aged between 14 and 16 from countries including India, China, South Africa, Hungary, Armenia, Uzbekistan and Russia, were selected from thousands of contestants.
“No [country] in the world, except Russia, sends children to the North Pole. We selected the strongest kids interested in natural science disciplines such as chemistry, physics, math and biology,” said Tatyana Terentyeva, the jury chair and an executive at the nuclear energy giant Rosatom, which provided the icebreaker, a vessel named “50 Let Pobedy” (50 Years of Victory).
The August trip is the fifth such expedition. This year, the project has gone international. The foreign participants were selected within the framework of the World Youth Festival, which was held in Russia earlier this year.
The students will be accompanied on their journey by renowned scientists, nuclear industry experts, and Arctic researchers.
The vessel will set off from the Arctic port of Murmansk. The distance between the port and the North Pole is 2,400 kilometers.
“50 Let Pobedy” is one of the world’s largest nuclear icebreakers and is used for commercial tourism. Tours to the North Pole and back normally take 13 days and have a price tag of at least 2.5 million rubles ($28,000).
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