Russia to test air quality monitoring on Nornickel with view to going nationwide

Russia will start testing a potentially nationwide real-time system to monitor air quality at metals giant Nornickel's base in the industrial Arctic city of Norilsk next year, the company and a government official said on Thursday.

Nornickel, the world's leading nickel and palladium producer, has been a major emitter of sulphur dioxide (SO2) in Norilsk, its main production base since Soviet times and which for years earned it the rank of the world's most polluted city.