Natural hydrogen degassing from within the Earth may be accompanied by such phenomena as hydrogen embrittlement of metal construction and rapid development of karst. The consequences can be disastrous, so our group got in touch with the specialists of the Russian Research Institute for Nuclear Power Operations (VNIIAES). A meeting was held August 6, 2015 at which it was decided to join efforts in this research.
September 29, 2015, based on a pre-agreement between Institute of Physics of the Earth RAS and VNIIAES, we conducted a field geochemical survey of the territory near the Kalinin nuclear power plant for the presence of natural gases in the subsoil, especially hydrogen.
In the eight points, using gas analyzers VG-2A, VG-2B, the VG-2B and Dräger X-am 7000, we analyzed 36 samples of subsurface air from the wells with a diameter of 12mm and a depth of 1200mm. At several points we observed an increased content of hydrogen (0,43 - 0,55 vol%). No exceedances were found for other gases.
Based on the results of this work, the decision was made to expand the study of natural hydrogen anomalies in soils of nuclear power plants. Further studies will be pointed to content of H2 not only outside, but also inside the territory of plants.

p.s. This is our second visit to the surrounding area of Kalinin NPP. The results of the first expedition can be found on our website.

This month Russian Academy of Sciences held a meeting dedicated to the natural hydrogen and Vladimir Larin's theory of hydridic Earth. It was moderated by Sergey Glazyev, Russian politician and economist, Full Member of Russian Academy of Science. During the meeting scientists presented current achievements in this topic. The red line of the discussion was the recent discovery of natural hydrogen gas seepage out of shallow depressions on the Earth's surface. We communicated about this discovery in our news earlier past year.

Participants discussed the potential of natural hydrogen to become a new source of energy and in the end of the meeting they concluded to create an entire new branch in the Academy to promote the research in this direction. The video of this meeting (in Russian, English subtitles) has already collected 100 000 views, what is big number for such type of scientific media. To turn on the subtitles press the "CC" button in the lower right corner of the video.

We thank Mikhail Kolarov for transcription and translation of this video.

We are pleased to inform you that that our results, obtained during several past years of research, have been published in the peer-reviewed journal, Natural Resources Research. This work was done in collaboration with the French Institute of Petroleum and New energies (IFPEN).

We are making measurements of hydrogen in small surface depression near the lake Podovoye. Voronezh region, Russia.

One of most popular French newspapers "Le monde" publishes an article about natural hydrogen as a new source of energy. In brief, it describes the results of cooperation of French Institutе of Petrоleum and New Enеrgies and Institute of Physics of the Earth of Russian Academy of Sciences. 

First page of the journal from April 11th 2013. Below the journal's name, the article "When hydrogen will be the energy of the future".

Have a look on the picture of the printed version of the journal.

Results of examining the soil damage caused by natural hydrogen seeps by a team of pedologists from the Moscow State University were published in the Eurasian Soil Science journal, 2013, Vol. 46, 2, pp 135-144 . Original text was published in Russian in the journal Pochvovedenie: Почвоведение, №2, 2013, с. 152.

Abstract of the article: 

The exhalation of hydrogen out of the earth’s deep sediments in the areas usually confined to tectonic fractures has been investigated. In places of hydrogen exhalation, ring-shaped structures of subsidence are formed. They are well identified on satellite images. The concentrations of molecular hydrogen measured in the field exceed to a great extent its probable production in soils. The soils influenced by two factors—a flux of molecular hydrogen and temporary waterlogging—are shown to degrade rapidly. The humus content decreases by 2–3 times; the optical density of the humic acids drops significantly; and the humus distribution, according to the morphological features, points to its high mobility. On the whole, hydrogen emissions inhibit the microbial activity resulting in a drastic decrease of the total microbial biomass and a greater contribution of bacteria to its structure. In a model experiment with hydrogen passing through a soil column, the bleaching of the soil by 2% and some reduction in the optical density of the humic acids were recorded.

Interesting, that the satellite imagery, made a month after our visit, shows the traces of our stay in the Sselki area of the Lipetsk region: the car tires traces along the profile of hydrohen mesurements on the SW-NE direction, and traces of four pits done for soil studies: