Everyone is concerned about our nuclear safety. But especially the west?
Ending. Beginning in No. 5 for 1999
The need to bury radioactive waste (RW) at sea was previously dictated primarily by the weak development of the industry specializing in their processing. Moreover, we recall that our country made its first discharge into sea waters much later than the United States, Great Britain and Japan. Estimates of Western scientists indicate that radioactive waste with a total activity of 1 million curies was dumped into the Atlantic Ocean only during the combined operations of Great Britain, Belgium, the Netherlands, Switzerland, France and Germany.
After research by domestic and foreign scientists, it became known that the radiation situation in the Arctic seas is determined by the fallout of radioactive substances from the atmosphere, their entry with river runoff, but above all - the amount of RW that has fallen with the warm masses of the Atlantic Gulf Stream. As a result of this cross-border transfer of liquid waste dumped into the North Sea, for example by the nuclear fuel reprocessing plants in Selafield (Great Britain), the share of radioactive substances "disposed" by the USSR in the waters of the Barents Sea is only four percent of the total!
After the signing of the London Convention, the Soviet Union took steps to fulfill its international norms and obligations: RW discharges by the Murmansk Shipping Company were gradually reduced and stopped in 1984, and by the Northern Fleet in 1992.
Norwegian and Russian experts are investigating the radioactive contamination of the Barents and Kara Seas. The results of their work mainly served as the necessary scientific material for the first international conference on "Environmental Radioactivity in the Arctic and Antarctic"to be held in Kirkenes (Norway) in the summer of 1993. The session was attended by over 120 representatives of the scientific community from 17 countries, including Russia, Canada, USA, Fran ...
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