Severnaya Zemlya but currently there are no human inhabitants in Severnaya Zemlya except for the Prima Polar Station near Cape Baranov. The largest glacier in the Russian Federation, the Academy of Sciences Glacier, is located in Severnaya Zemlya. The archipelago is notable as well in connection with the ongoing multiyear Arctic sea ice decline. Until recently, ice joined the islands to Eurasia, even at its smallest extent during the late summer melt season, blocking the Northeast Passage between the Atlantic and the Pacific. By the late summer of 2012, however, the permanent ice had reached a record low extent and open water
12th Chief Directorate Another task of the 12th GU MO is to prevent so-called "nuclear terrorism," but this is a relatively modern task, which did not exist formerly. Besides these nuclear arsenal bases, the 12th Chief Directorate maintains several nuclear weapons research institutes in Moscow and in Sergiev Posad, near Moscow, with their subsidiaries located at nuclear testing grounds in Semipalatinsk-21 and on Novaya Zemlya Archipelago, and in several other cities (Saint Petersburg, for example). It also maintains a separate research institute tasked with developing nuclear explosions detection technology. Another function of the 12th GU MO is to serve as a link between