Svalbard Global Seed Vault

Longyearbyen is home to one of the most important buildings in the world. The seeds in the cold mountain halls is an insurance for the food supply of the future generations.

In 2004, Noreg commissioned an international research organization to establish a safe storage facility for seeds in Spitsbergen. The permafrost in the mountains, the good infrastructure, and the trust Noreg has gained as a bridge builder working for genetic resources made Spitsbergen relevant for such a facility.

Global seed nitrogenation in Svalbard was completed in 2008. At the foot of Platåfjellet in Longyearbyen, there is the capacity to store 4.5 million seed samples. Currently, seed samples from more than 4,000 plant heritages are located there.

In 2018, Statsbygg began rehabilitating the access tunnel to Frøkvelvet. The steel structure was replaced with a powerful and watertight concrete structure. Freezing islands around and in the excavation form an ice wall that helps the permafrost to stop the temperature. The access tunnel was fully rehabilitated in 2019. DOYMA designed and created for this unique project, a custom-made, non-centered sealing system for a core bore of 3867 mm. The largest sealing system in the form of a custom design DOYMA has ever manufactured.

The system on the Arctic island of Spitsbergen, which belongs to Norway, is thus a kind of biological safe deposit box for mankind. Barely more than 1000 kilometers from the North Pole, stored in the eternal ice. 

Translated with www.DeepL.com/Translator (free version)

 

Entrance hall Photo: Statsbygg/Jaro Hollan

130 m deep in the mountain stores the seeds of the whole world

Behind a gray concrete entrance slumbers the backup copy of global crop diversity. The Global Seed Vault was established in 2008 in the perpetual ice of Spitsbergen in order to be able to replenish humanity's food supply in the event of a global catastrophe, if necessary with genetic material from the Arctic seed vault.

Learn more in video

DOYMA sealing systems in deep ice

The artwork Eternal impact on the roof Photo: Statsbygg/Trond Isaksen
Nestled in the snowy landscape Photo: Statsbygg/Trond Isaksen
Renovation 2019 Photo: Statsbygg/Ragnhild Utne
Control at -20° cold temperatures, photo: Statsbygg/Ragnhild Utne
Entrance hall Photo: Statsbygg/Jaro Hollan
Service building Photo: Statsbygg/Trond Isaksen
Reopening after renovation in 2019 Photo: Statsbygg/Trond Isaksenn

Builder

Statsbygg, Oslo, Norwegen

Sales partner

Shelby Teknikk as, Egersund, Norwegen

 

 

Year of installation
2021

Product group(s)

Sealing systems  |  special constructions

Products

  • HKD sealing system special design DISO non-center split media pipe 3640 mm on core bore 3867 mm - the largest ever built at DOYMA.

The seed storage facility on Svalbard required custom-sized sealing systems to seal the gaps between the access tunnel and the two transverse walls in the mountain tunnel. The increased difficulty lay in the off-center openings of the inner transverse wall, which were not 100% round.

The solution was therefore non-centric special constructions in the outer cross wall. DOYMA has decades of expertise in manufacturing these precise special constructions. 

Place

Seed Vault Spitsbergen, Norway

Installed products - special constructions