Radioactivity - The Changing Arctic Environment: The Arctic Messenger - page 60

the dumpsites. It was estimated that for all three scenarios, the maximum annual individual
doses for members of the public were small (less than 1 mSv). Even the security patrols on
the fjords were estimated to experience a radiation dose comparable to natural background
radiation. The collective radiation doses for the slow release scenario for the world's pop-
ulation over the next 1,000 years were also estimated to be low, as were the radiation dose
rates to a range of populations of marine animals from zooplankton to whales.
Onthe basis oftheir evaluation, the IASAPconcluded that remedial measures, such as
attempting toraise thedumpedreactors, werenotjustified. Atfirst,thismaybeasurprising
recommendation, but it is far easier to understand when one realizes the potential hazards
of causing a catastrophic failure of waste containment during any recovery operation. The
report did recommend regular monitoring of the dumpsites.
The 1998 AMAP radioactivity team reached the same conclusions as those of the
IASAP. In their 2009 assessment, the radioactivity group reviewed results of a survey con-
ducted in 2002 and found that levels around the dumpsites did not show evidence of sig-
nificant leakage to the environment. In fact, levels had generally fallen. The decision not
to interfere with the ocean dumpsites does not mean they do not pose a long-term risk. It
simply means it is safer at the moment to leave the material where it is. At present, the
primary need related to the radioactive material dumped into the Arctic Ocean during the
Soviet era is to ensure that regular monitoring continues.
Safe decommissioning and disposal of redundant Soviet-era nuclear submarines
and related facilities: The studies of the dumping of obsolete nuclear submarines and of
nuclear waste in coastal waters of the western Russian Arctic may in some ways have been
something of an anticlimax. However, it raised international awareness of a related waste
disposal issue and precipitated a major and little publicized period of technological cooper-
ation that is still continuing today. The end of the Cold War eventually resulted in 198
former Soviet nuclear submarines being taken out of service - most of which were based
around Murmansk. What has happened to them since 1995 and to Russian facilities associ-
ated with the management of the nuclear fuel cycle of these vessels, including the disposal
of spent nuclear fuel?