Anthropogenic radioactivity in the Arctic Ocean--review of the results from the joint German project.

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, 239 + 240Pu, 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 radionuclide 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.

The outflow of radionuclides from Novaya Zemlya bays--modeling and monitoring strategies.

Hydrodynamic model results are used to evaluate possible monitoring strategies for a continuous survey of underwater dump sites. The Hamburg Shelf Ocean Model (HAMSOM) is applied to Abrosimov Bay and forced with realistic, transient wind fields and air temperatures. The three-dimensional circulation model is coupled to a dynamic-thermodynamic ice model that accounts for surface heat fluxes, fractional ice cover and ice thickness. Model results show significant variations in the bay circulation due to a pronounced seasonality in the wind forcing and the ice cover. The circulation is weakest in early summer when wind speeds are low and the ice still covers most parts of the bay. In autumn, circulation and flushing of the bay is most enhanced, due to increasing wind speeds and the absence of an ice cover. Dispersion scenarios were carried out assuming a leakage at dumped objects. During most of the year the obtained tracer concentrations in the bay are higher in the upper layers than close to the bottom, indicating an outflow at the surface and a compensatory inflow below. This general pattern is only reversed during spring and early summer, when the wind directions change. Since ice problems make it almost impossible to monitor surface waters or even the whole water column in a shallow bay, the only way to install a monitoring system, is at the bottom of the bay, as close as possible to dumped objects. Data transmission via satellite or radio could be realized from a small station located on the bay's edge.