Nuclear Fuel Reprocessing and Related Discharges

Abstract

This article summarizes the history of marine applications of radionuclides discharged from nuclear fuel reprocessing plants and their utility as tracers of water circulation in the global ocean. The most important reprocessing plants from an oceanographic perspective are those located at Sellafield (UK) and La Hague (France) which discharge into the Irish Sea and English Channel, respectively. Measurements of the radionuclides 134Cs, 137Cs, 99Tc, 129I, and 236U released from these nuclear plants have been used to determine transit times for the advective flow of water throughout the North Atlantic and Arctic Ocean since the 1970s. More recently, these radionuclide tracers have been used to determine mean ages and mixing rates using transit time distribution (TTD) theory to address climate related issues such as the uptake of anthropogenic carbon in the ocean and deep ocean boundary current transport and deep water ventilation.