Radioactive contamination in the marine environment adjacent to the outfall of the radioactive waste treatment plant at ATOMFLOT, northern Russia

RTP “ATOMFLOT” is a civilian nuclear icebreaker base located on the Kola Bay of northwest Russia. The objectives of this study were to determine the distributions of man-made radionuclides in the marine environment adjacent to the base, to explain the form of the distributions in sediments and to de...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:	Journal of environmental radioactivity Vol. 61; no. 1; pp. 111 - 131
Main Authors:	Brown, J.E, Nikitin, A, Valetova, N.K, Chumichev, V.B, Katrich, I.Yu, Berezhnoy, V.I, Pegoev, N.N, Kabanov, A.I, Pichugin, S.N, Vopiyashin, Yu.Ya, Lind, B, Grøttheim, S, Sickel, M, Strand, P
Format:	Journal Article
Language:	English
Published:	Oxford Elsevier Ltd 2002 Elsevier
Subjects:	ATOMFLOT Environmental Monitoring Geologic Sediments - chemistry Kola Bay Marine Radioactive Fallout Radioisotopes - analysis Radionuclides Russia Water Pollutants, Radioactive - analysis Russia INW, Russia PNE, Russia, Murmanskaya, Kol'skiy Peninsula, Kol'skiy Bay Russia, Kola Bay ATOMFLOT Radionuclides Marine Kola Bay
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Summary:	RTP “ATOMFLOT” is a civilian nuclear icebreaker base located on the Kola Bay of northwest Russia. The objectives of this study were to determine the distributions of man-made radionuclides in the marine environment adjacent to the base, to explain the form of the distributions in sediments and to derive information concerning the fate of radionuclides discharged from ATOMFLOT. Mean activity concentrations (d.w.) for surface sediment, of 63 Bq kg −1 137Cs, 5.8 Bq kg −1 90Sr and 0.45 Bq kg −1 239,240Pu were measured. Filtered seawater activity levels were in the range of 3–6.9 Bq m −3 137Cs, 2.0–11.2 Bq m −3 90Sr, and 16–40 mBq m −3, 239,240Pu. Short-lived radionuclides were present at sediment depths in excess of 10 cm indicating a high degree of sediment mixing. Correlations of radionuclide activity concentrations with grain-size appear to be absent; instead, the presence of relatively contaminated sediment appears to be related to the existence of radioactive particles.
Bibliography:	ObjectType-Article-2 SourceType-Scholarly Journals-1 ObjectType-Feature-1 content type line 23
ISSN:	0265-931X 1879-1700
DOI:	10.1016/S0265-931X(01)00121-7