RUSSUAN ARCTIC ENVIRONMENT: RADIOACTIVITY SAFETY ISSUES

Long-term data on radioactive contamination sources for terrestrial and marine environment of the Russian Arctic have been summarized in the article. Basically, contamination of the area with antropogenic radionuclides has arisen from the three primary known sources: global fallout from atmospheric nuclear weapons testing all over the Northern hemisphere, liquid release from European nuclear fuel reprocessing plants, and fallout in the European area from the Chernobyl accident.
In addition to these sources of widespread contamination, there is a number of notable local contamination sources. These cover the Novaya Zemlya nuclear weapons test sites; dumping of solid radioactive wastes including nuclear reactors and submarines in the Barents and Kara seas as well as decommission facilities stored in coastal bays of the North-west Russian Arctic.
An accumulated environmental damage for vulnerable Arctic ecosystems resulted mainly from an arms race in the time of “cool war”. Finally, fallout from the Chernobyl accident in 1986 made additional significant contribution to radionuclide contamination of the Western part of the Russian Arctic. Not all potentially radioactive sites are estimated as extremely harmful for population or environment today. Nevertheless, they should be treated as a great danger for the nearest future, especially those of underwater storage.