&imwidth=800&imheight=600&format=webp&quality=medium "Expedition to study 200,000 barrels of nuclear waste in Atlantic Ocean set to launch soon")
Europe dumped more than 200,000 barrels of radioactive waste into the Atlantic Ocean between 1971 and 1982. Now a team of researchers from France, Norway, Germany, and Spain are setting out on a mission to explore how the nuclear waste has impacted the environment. During the expedition, which is expected to continue for several months, they will also identify radionuclides (radioisotopes or radioactive isotopes) and confirm their number.
During the Cold War, the United States and Europe faced the dilemma of disposing of their nuclear waste. None came up with a brilliant plan and decided to simply dump it in the rivers. In the US, the radioactive waste from plutonium production was put in single-shell waste tanks and placed near the banks of the Columbia River. Europe simply dumped the barrels into the Atlantic Ocean without considering the consequences.
Mapping seabed to search for radioactive barrels
Scientists have been scanning the nuclear waste disposal site for two years now. Researchers from the French National Center for Scientific Research (CNRS) have found thousands of barrels covered with marine life, such as crabs and sea anemones. Last year, a robot checked an area of 14,500 square kilometres and mapped the seabed using sonar technology. In just two per cent of the area, it found 3,500 barrels of radioactive waste.
Samples from around 50 barrels were collected, along with sediment, water, and microbial specimens, to understand how the radioactive waste has affected the region and how radioactive materials change in a marine environment after 50 years. Javier Escartin and Patrick Chardon, researchers linked with the project, wrote in The Conversation that the radionuclides have likely transferred to living organisms. New procedures and methodologies, including onboard radiation protection, will be used, making it one of the first radioecological studies in the deep sea.
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While the changes inflicted by the radioactive waste cannot be altered, the study is important to prevent future governments from making such disastrous decisions.
