Thomas Nilsen

Nuclear icebreaker gets six years prolonged lifetime

The two reactors onboard the Soviet-built "Yamal" are reviewed by experts and approved for another 50,000 hours of operation, meaning the icebreaker can sail until 2028.
July 13, 2020

Murmansk Mayor Yevgeny Nikora tests positive as coronavirus continues to spike on the Kola Peninsula

Nikora is hospitalized and undergoing treatment for Covid-19 and pneumonia.
July 10, 2020

Norway changes homeport for spy-ship, away from Russian border

Ministry of Defense confirms that Harstad is the new official homeport for the intelligence ship «Marjata» that until now has called on Kirkenes for crew change and supplies.
July 10, 2020

Miners hunting for metals to battery cars threaten Sámi reindeer herders' homeland

Tuomas Siilasjoki and Minna Näkkäläjärvi say they were taken by surprise when a mobile drill rig one day appeared in the horizon. Nobody had asked them about exploring for minerals inside their siida, a reindeer foraging area, in northern Finland. The Sámi families here in Tarvantovaara wilderness area fear the world's hunger for metals to ramp up the green economy will destroy their indigenous way of life.
July 09, 2020

Villagers advised by military to evacuate Nenoksa ahead of missile test

Villagers are asked to meet at 5 am on July 7th to board busses bringing them in safe distance for the Russian navy’s test site on the coast of the White Sea in northern Russia. A warning to ships is issued for a large area in the White Sea from Nenoksa towards Cape Kanin.
July 06, 2020

Radioactivity is blowing in the air

Invisible for humans, but detectable for radiation-filters. A cloud with tiny levels of radioactivity, believed to originate from western Russia, has been detected over Scandinavia and European Arctic.
June 26, 2020

Norway proposes to open 125 new oil exploration blocks in the Barents Sea

The heat is on: While record Arctic heat in Siberia makes worldwide headlines, the Norwegian government presents massive oil drilling plans north in the Barents Sea.
June 24, 2020

Solovki closed for visitors

Arkhangelsk authorities have tightened the rules, making it practically impossible for pilgrims and tourists to go onshore at the popular monastery archipelago in the White Sea as a protective measures to stop the spread of the coronavirus.
June 24, 2020

Government grants 150 million for fast-chargers in remote northern Sweden

The aim is to establish a network with no more than 100 km between each fast-chargers on the main roads.
June 23, 2020

Murmansk sees coronavirus cases spike as governor lifts restrictions

Murmansk found 37 new cases of COVID-19 on Sunday and the total number of infections in the city is now 1137. However, from Monday June 22 restrictions are to be lifted, governor Andrei Chibis has decided.
June 21, 2020

Pages

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