Anthropogenic radioactivity in the Arctic Ocean - review of the

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results from the joint German project

11

stron

6449

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The Bundesamt für Seeschifffahrt und Hydrographie

1999

rok

Abstract

The paper presents the results of the joint project carried out in Germany in order to assess the

consequences in the marine environment from the dumping of nuclear wastes in the Kara and

Barents Seas. The project consisted of experimental work on measurements of radionuclides in

samples from the Arctic marine environment and numerical modelling of the potential pathways and

dispersion of contaminants in the Arctic Ocean. Water and sediment samples were collected for

determination of radionuclide such as 137Cs, 90Sr, 239q240 Pu, 238Pu, and 241Am and various

organic micropollutants. In addition, a few water and numerous surface sediment samples collected

in the Kara Sea and from the Kola peninsula were taken by Russian colleagues and analysed for

artificial radionuclides by the BSH laboratory. The role of transport by sea ice from the Kara Sea

into the Arctic Ocean was assessed by a small subgroup at GEOMAR. This transport process might

be considered as a rapid contribution due to entrainment of contaminated sediments into sea ice,

following export from the Kara Sea into the transpolar ice drift and subsequent release in the

Atlantic Ocean in the area of the East Greenland Current. Numerical modelling of dispersion of

pollutants from the Kara and Barents Seas was carried out both on a local scale for the Barents and

Kara Seas and for long range dispersion into the Arctic and Atlantic Oceans. Three-dimensional

baroclinic circulation models were applied to trace the transport of pollutants. Experimental results

were used to validate the model results such as the discharges from the nuclear reprocessing plant

at Sellafield and subsequent contamination of the North Sea up the Arctic Seas.