Predicted radionuclide release from reactor-related unenclosed solid objects dumped in the Sea of Japan and the Pacific Ocean, east coast of Kamchatka

• Main Authors: Mount, M.E., Lynn, N.M., Warden, J.M.
• Other Authors: United States. Department of Energy.
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory 1996
• Subjects: Pacific Ocean; Radioactive Waste Disposal; Reactors; Radioactive Wastes; 05 Nuclear Fuels; Mathematical Models; Radioisotopes; Submarines; Marine Disposal; Contamination; Release Limits; 54 Environmental Sciences; Inventories; Kara Sea; Pacific; Kamchatka
• Online Access: http://digital.library.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metadc679684/

Between 1978 and 1991 reactor-related solid radioactive waste was dumped by the former Soviet Union as unenclosed objects in the Pacific Ocean, east coast of Kamchatka, and the Sea of Japan. This paper presented estimates for the current (1994) inventory of activation and corrosion products contained in the reactor-related unenclosed solid objects. In addition, simple models derived for prediction of radionuclide release from marine reactors dumped in the Kara Sea are applied to certain of the dumped objects to provide estimates of radionuclide release to the Pacific Ocean, east coast of Kamchatka, and Sea of Japan environments. For the Pacific Ocean, east coast of Kamchatka, total release rates start below 0.01 GBq yr{sup -1} and over 1,000 years, fall to 100 Bq yr{sup -1}. In the Sea of Japan, the total release rate starts just above 1 GBq yr{sup - 1}, dropping off to a level less than 0.1 GBq yr{sup -1}, extending past the year 4,000.