Dumping of Radioactive Waste in the Barents and Kara Seas

• Main Authors: Salbu, B., Strand, P., Christensen, G.C.
• Format: Text
• Language: English
• Published: Oxford University Press 1995
• Subjects: Article; Kara Sea; Novaya Zemlya
• Online Access: http://rpd.oxfordjournals.org/cgi/content/short/62/1-2/9

To evaluate the level of radioactive contamination in the Kara Sea and to assess short and long term consequences of dumped radioactive waste, joint Russian-Norwegian expeditions have been performed annually since 1992. Results from the 1992 joint expedition to the Kara Sea demonstrated very low concentrations of radionuclides in waters and sediments. Contributions from different sources: global fallout, river transport, marine transport of discharges from European reprocessing plants and of fallout from Chernobyl, could be identified. From the expeditions in 1993 and 1994 to three bays at Novaya Zemlya, local contamination in the Stepovogo and the Abrosimov bays due to leakage from the dumped radioactive waste could be confirmed. Results from the 1994 expedition will be published in 1995. The levels of radioactivity in the Kara Sea are, however, very low and represent at present an extremely low impact on man and the marine ecosystem.