Summary: | Resumen del trabajo presentado a la "Thirteenth International Conference on Accelerator Mass Spectrometry" celebrada en Aix-en-Provence (Francia) del 24 al 29 de agosto de 2014.-- et al. 129I is mainly released into the marine system through liquid discharge from the nuclear fuel reprocessing plants (NFRP) at Sellafield and La Hague. This radioisotope is transported around the European shelf and northwards into the Nordic Seas and Arctic Ocean. Recent studies (Casacuberta, this conference) point out to an increase of 129I concentrations in the Arctic during the last decade. In this work, the Irminger and Iceland Basins (IrB and IB), the transects Glasgow-Reykjavik and Sellafield-Porcupine Abyssal Plain (PAP), Norwegian and Barent Seas, Fram Strait and Greenland Sea were sampled. An outline of updated 129I concentrations in key locations of the North Atlantic and the Arctic Oceans is presented. An enduring increase of 129I concentrations throughout the North Atlantic and Arctic oceans was found, up to an order of magnitude in some areas. Our results show a week correlation surface 129I - latitude, previously reported. We have evaluated if this lost might be due to the sinking of 129I of the Atlantic surface waters during the formation of the North Atlantic Deep Water. For that, 129I inventories were estimated at the Nordic Seas and IrB. They showed a strong positive correlation with latitude that might be associated to the sinking of 129I. Finally, high 129I concentrations were also detected in Southern and North-western positions (IB and PAP site) this suggests that 129I from Sellafield might not be exclusively transported by the North Atlantic Current and Norwegian Coastal Current into the North and Nordic Seas the amount of 129I split from the main Northern branch might have implications in the evaluation of the 129I input function into the Arctic and its use as a water masses tracer, so further investigations would be necessary. Peer reviewed
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