Assessment of the impact of nuclear wastes in the Russian Arctic

Concern for nuclear contamination in the Arctic stems from many sources: atmospheric (from global fallout from nuclear testing, or Chernobyl type accidents, marine or ocean current transport, riverine or groundwater transport, biological (migratory species), and ocean dumped wastes. Some of the sources are from quite a distance, such as the radionuclide contamination which enters the Arctic Ocean from the direct discharge 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 France and operate in compliance with international standards. Despite this compliance, and a significant reduction in recent years in the discharge activity levels, these facilities have together discharged over 3 million Curies (Commission of the European Community, 1989). A portion of this discharge is carried into the Arctic Ocean. Concentrations of Cs137 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 sources over a period of 40+ years associated with the cold war activities, military and weapons productions facilities, decommissioning facilities, operation of the nuclear icebreaker fleet, and wastes from nuclear power plants