POTENTIAL RADIONUCLIDE RELEASE RATES FROM MARINE REACTORS DUMPED IN THE KARA SEA

Citation
Jm. Warden et al., POTENTIAL RADIONUCLIDE RELEASE RATES FROM MARINE REACTORS DUMPED IN THE KARA SEA, Science of the total environment, 202(1-3), 1997, pp. 225-236
Citations number
9
Categorie Soggetti
Environmental Sciences
ISSN journal
00489697
Volume
202
Issue
1-3
Year of publication
1997
Pages
225 - 236
Database
ISI
SICI code
0048-9697(1997)202:1-3<225:PRRRFM>2.0.ZU;2-1
Abstract
The largest inventory of radioactive materials dumped in the Kara Sea by the former Soviet Union comes from the spent nuclear fuel (SNF) of seven marine reactors, the 1994 inventory of which made a total of app roximately 4.7 PBq. In progressing its work for the International Arct ic Seas Assessment Project (IASAP), under the auspices of the Internat ional Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), the IASAP Source Term Working Group has developed a number of simple computer models to predict the poten tial release patterns of radionuclides into the Kara Sea from the SNF and activated components dumped within the marine reactors. These mode ls are based on the present and future conditions of the barrier mater ials and their configuration within the dumped objects. They account f or progressive corrosion of the outer and inner steel barriers, breakd own of the organic fillers, and degradation and leaching from the SNFs . Annual release rates are predicted to beyond 5000 years into the fut ure. (C) 1997 Elsevier Science B.V.