Transfer of European coastal pollution to the arctic: Radioactive tracers

Abstract

Controlled discharges of man-made radionuclides from the nuclear reprocessing facilities at Sellafield (UK) and La Hague (France) have been utilized to trace the transport of European coastal contaminants to the Barents Sea, the Kara Sea, the Arctic Ocean and the East Greenland Current. The transfer is quantified by a transfer factor (TF), calculated as the quotient between observed concentrations in the environment and an average discharge rate t years earlier, where t is the transport time. A TF value of 1–2 ng m −3/t yr −1 has been found for Sellafield discharges in East Greenland Current Polar Water—a water mass reflecting contaminant levels in Arctic Ocean surface water. Such transfer factors are also valid for other conservatively-behaving pollutants discharged to the European coastal zone. Even non-conservative particle-reactive elements (e.g. plutonium) have now been traced from European coastal waters to the Arctic.