Thomas Nilsen

Rosatom announces 700-million rubel upgrade of Kola 1 reactor

Lifetime of the oldest nuclear reactor will with the upgrade be prolonged to 60 years.
March 28, 2016

This barge will soon sail the Barents Sea in shuttle traffic with radioactive cargo

The Italian built barge can be a key-tool in lifting sunken nuclear reactors from Arctic waters.
March 21, 2016

Construction work restarted on cross-border road

New year with new cash. Excavators and dump trucks are back in business again on Russia’s road towards the Norwegian border.
March 17, 2016

Reciprocity stops Russian airliner to Finnmark

Aviastar-TU is not allowed to operate cargo flights to Lakselv airport as long as Norwegian Air Shuttle is denied to overfly Russian territory.
March 16, 2016

World’s first polar class megayacht

Crystal Cruises sets sail in 2018 with this new purpose-build Polar Code vessel able to crush through medium first-year ice.
March 16, 2016

Sanctioned Russian bank is good investment for Norway’s Oil Fund

Value of Norway’s shares in Sberbank increased by NOK 750 million in 2015.
March 15, 2016

Barents oil production has started

Norway's Minister of Oil and Energy, Tord Lien, can smile as the world’s northernmost oil platform now pumps oil after years of delay.
March 13, 2016

Why do people travel around the globe to sleep in snow?

“We sell snow and the cold," says Adventure Developer Kåre Tannvik with Kirkenes Snowhotel.
March 11, 2016

Migrants on Arctic transit route have returned to Moscow

One week without any asylum seekers to Finnish Lapland.
March 07, 2016

Murmansk based aircraft carrier prepares for a summer by the Mediterranean

After the voyage to the waters outside Syria, “Admiral Kuznetsov” will be taken out of service for at least two years for upgrades.
March 07, 2016

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Thomas Nilsen is editor of the Independent Barents Observer with its news desk located in Kirkenes, northern Norway. He has a long experience in media cooperation across the borders in the high north of Europe, both as radio- and newspaper reporter all the way back to the days before the breakup of the Soviet Union. 

Nilsen has been editor of Barents Observer since 2009.

He was Deputy Head of the Norwegian Barents Secretariat from 2004-2009. Until 2003, he worked 12 years for the Bellona Foundation’s Russian study group, focusing on nuclear safety issues and general environmental challenges in northern areas and the Arctic. 

Thomas has been traveling extensively across northern Scandinavia and Arctic Russia since the late 80’s working for different media and organizations. He is also a guide at sea and in remote locations in the Russian north for various groups and regularly lectures on security issues, environmental and socio-economic development.

Thomas Nilsen studied at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology.

Mobile: +47-90573143

thomas@thebarentsobserver.com
@nilsen.thomas