RADIOECOLOGICAL STATUS OF ARCTIC MARINE ECOSYSTEMS AND CURRENT OCEAN AND COASTAL MANAGEMENT

In: Trudy Kolʹskogo naučnogo centra RAN. Gumanitarnye issledovanija = Humanitarian studies, Band 11, Heft 4, S. 261-275

Abstract

We examined the radioecological status of seawater from arctic seas currently used for coastal and offshore innovative industrial and socio-economic projects. We analyzed processes that affect the formation of the current radioecological background. We showed that the volumetric activity of man-made radionuclides in seawater has been steadily low over the past decade. We believe that this is caused by the general influence of global sources of radioactive contamination. Among them, atmospheric deposition and transoceanic transport are most significant. We determined a substantial difference between the concentration of 137Cs in seawater of the Barents and Kara seas and that in the Laptev and East Siberian seas. This difference is determined by the significant influence of polluted Atlantic water on the Barents and Kara seas and its far weaker impact on the Laptev and East Siberian seas. We found out regional and local patterns of the distribution of radionuclides in the environment of arctic seas, which are the most important for the study and development of the logistics network in the Russian Arctic in the light of the prospective development of the transport and resources of those seas.