ASSESSMENT OF THE IMPACT OF NUCLEAR WASTES IN THE RUSSIAN ARCTIC

Concern for nuclear contamination in the Arctic stems from many source s: atmospheric (from global fallout from nuclear testing, or Chernobyl type accidents, marine or ocean current transport, riverine or ground water transport, biological (migratory species), and ocean dumped wast es. Some of the sources are from quite a distance, such as the radionu clide contamination which enters the Arctic Ocean from the direct disc harge of radioactive waste into the waters of the Irish and North seas from western European fuel reprocessing facilities at Sellefield and la Hague, These facilities are maintained by the United Kingdom and Fr ance and operate in compliance with international standards, Despite t his compliance, and a significant reduction in recent years in the dis charge activity levels, these facilities have together discharged over 3 million Curies (Commission of the European Community, 1989), A port ion of this discharge is carried into the Arctic Ocean, Concentrations of Cs-137 in the Kara Sea appear to have decreased significantly over time in concert with decreases in the European discharge rates. Most of the direct nuclear contamination in the Arctic are from Russian sou rces over a period of 40+ years associated with the cold war activitie s, military and weapons productions facilities, decommissioning facili ties, operation of the nuclear icebreaker fleet, and wastes from nucle ar power plants (C) Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.