Radioactive contamination in the marine environment adjacent to the outfall of the radioactive waste treatment plant at ATOMFLOT, northern Russia

RTP “ATOMFLOT” is a civilian nuclear icebreaker base located on the Kola Bay of northwest Russia. The objectives of this study were to determine the distributions of man-made radionuclides in the marine environment adjacent to the base, to explain the form of the distributions in sediments and to derive information concerning the fate of radionuclides discharged from ATOMFLOT. Mean activity concentrations (d.w.) for surface sediment, of 63 Bq kg−1 137Cs, 5.8 Bq kg−1 90Sr and 0.45 Bq kg−1 239,240Pu were measured. Filtered seawater activity levels were in the range of 3–6.9 Bq m−3 137Cs, 2.0–11.2 Bq m−3 90Sr, and 16–40 mBq m−3, 239,240Pu. Short-lived radionuclides were present at sediment depths in excess of 10 cm indicating a high degree of sediment mixing. Correlations of radionuclide activity concentrations with grain-size appear to be absent; instead, the presence of relatively contaminated sediment appears to be related to the existence of radioactive particles.