Toxic splash: Russian rocket stages dropped in Arctic waters raise health, environmental and legal concerns
ABSTRACT Russia has dropped rocket stages fuelled with unsymmetrical dimethylhydrazine (UDMH) into the Barents Sea and the North Water Polynya—areas of considerable ecological importance—on ten occasions since 2002. The stages come from SS-19 intercontinental missiles that have been re-purposed for...
Published in: | Polar Record |
---|---|
Main Authors: | , |
Format: | Article in Journal/Newspaper |
Language: | English |
Published: |
Cambridge University Press (CUP)
2017
|
Subjects: | |
Online Access: | http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/s0032247417000547 https://www.cambridge.org/core/services/aop-cambridge-core/content/view/S0032247417000547 |
id |
crcambridgeupr:10.1017/s0032247417000547 |
---|---|
record_format |
openpolar |
spelling |
crcambridgeupr:10.1017/s0032247417000547 2024-09-15T17:57:56+00:00 Toxic splash: Russian rocket stages dropped in Arctic waters raise health, environmental and legal concerns Byers, Michael Byers, Cameron 2017 http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/s0032247417000547 https://www.cambridge.org/core/services/aop-cambridge-core/content/view/S0032247417000547 en eng Cambridge University Press (CUP) http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/ Polar Record volume 53, issue 6, page 580-591 ISSN 0032-2474 1475-3057 journal-article 2017 crcambridgeupr https://doi.org/10.1017/s0032247417000547 2024-08-07T04:04:15Z ABSTRACT Russia has dropped rocket stages fuelled with unsymmetrical dimethylhydrazine (UDMH) into the Barents Sea and the North Water Polynya—areas of considerable ecological importance—on ten occasions since 2002. The stages come from SS-19 intercontinental missiles that have been re-purposed for launching satellites. UDMH is a highly toxic chemical that has caused widespread health and environmental damage in Kazakhstan and Russia as a result of its extensive use there as a rocket fuel. Not all of the fuel on-board is consumed during a launch and the residual fuel tends to escape the incoming stages and form aerosol clouds that drift over large areas. This dropping of the rocket stages is of considerable concern to the Inuit of Canada and Greenland, who only learned about the practice in 2016. It is also a violation of several treaties as well as customary international law. At least two more launches of UDMH-fuelled rockets on the same trajectory are currently planned—even though alternative non-toxic rocket systems exist. Article in Journal/Newspaper Barents Sea Greenland inuit Polar Record Cambridge University Press Polar Record 53 6 580 591 |
institution |
Open Polar |
collection |
Cambridge University Press |
op_collection_id |
crcambridgeupr |
language |
English |
description |
ABSTRACT Russia has dropped rocket stages fuelled with unsymmetrical dimethylhydrazine (UDMH) into the Barents Sea and the North Water Polynya—areas of considerable ecological importance—on ten occasions since 2002. The stages come from SS-19 intercontinental missiles that have been re-purposed for launching satellites. UDMH is a highly toxic chemical that has caused widespread health and environmental damage in Kazakhstan and Russia as a result of its extensive use there as a rocket fuel. Not all of the fuel on-board is consumed during a launch and the residual fuel tends to escape the incoming stages and form aerosol clouds that drift over large areas. This dropping of the rocket stages is of considerable concern to the Inuit of Canada and Greenland, who only learned about the practice in 2016. It is also a violation of several treaties as well as customary international law. At least two more launches of UDMH-fuelled rockets on the same trajectory are currently planned—even though alternative non-toxic rocket systems exist. |
format |
Article in Journal/Newspaper |
author |
Byers, Michael Byers, Cameron |
spellingShingle |
Byers, Michael Byers, Cameron Toxic splash: Russian rocket stages dropped in Arctic waters raise health, environmental and legal concerns |
author_facet |
Byers, Michael Byers, Cameron |
author_sort |
Byers, Michael |
title |
Toxic splash: Russian rocket stages dropped in Arctic waters raise health, environmental and legal concerns |
title_short |
Toxic splash: Russian rocket stages dropped in Arctic waters raise health, environmental and legal concerns |
title_full |
Toxic splash: Russian rocket stages dropped in Arctic waters raise health, environmental and legal concerns |
title_fullStr |
Toxic splash: Russian rocket stages dropped in Arctic waters raise health, environmental and legal concerns |
title_full_unstemmed |
Toxic splash: Russian rocket stages dropped in Arctic waters raise health, environmental and legal concerns |
title_sort |
toxic splash: russian rocket stages dropped in arctic waters raise health, environmental and legal concerns |
publisher |
Cambridge University Press (CUP) |
publishDate |
2017 |
url |
http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/s0032247417000547 https://www.cambridge.org/core/services/aop-cambridge-core/content/view/S0032247417000547 |
genre |
Barents Sea Greenland inuit Polar Record |
genre_facet |
Barents Sea Greenland inuit Polar Record |
op_source |
Polar Record volume 53, issue 6, page 580-591 ISSN 0032-2474 1475-3057 |
op_rights |
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/ |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.1017/s0032247417000547 |
container_title |
Polar Record |
container_volume |
53 |
container_issue |
6 |
container_start_page |
580 |
op_container_end_page |
591 |
_version_ |
1810434154864574464 |