Assessment of the Fate of Radioactive Contaminants in the Ob River, Siberia, Russia

Abstract

This project has studied the distribution of particle reactive natural and artificial radionuclides in sediment cores of the Ob River, Siberia in order to determine the release and transport of nuclides from nuclear weapons related activities of the former Soviet Union. The Ob River drainage basin houses the bulk of the former Soviet Union's weapons production facilities (Mayak and Tomsk-7) as well as the major test site of Semipalatinsk. In addition, some 2 billion curries of nuclear waste from weapons production are stored or have been released to the environment in this area. The potential for catastrophic future releases from poorly maintained tanks and open storage ponds is real. This project has sought to develop a history of transport and deposition of nuclides released from these plants, and to use these data as a basis for estimating delivery to the Arctic Ocean and to predict rates of transport in the event of future releases.

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Document Details

Document Type
Technical Report
Publication Date
Jun 29, 1999
Accession Number
ADA365109

Entities

People

  • Frederick L. Sayles

Organizations

  • Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution

Tags

Communities of Interest

  • Weapons Technologies

DTIC Thesaurus Topics

  • Arctic Ocean
  • Contamination
  • Drainage Basins
  • Environment
  • Environmental Pollutants
  • Flood Plains
  • Materials
  • Nuclear Materials
  • Nuclear Weapons
  • Oceans
  • Particles
  • Production
  • Sediments
  • Transport Ships
  • Ussr
  • Weapons

Readers

  • Environmental Engineering.
  • Nuclear and Radiation Engineering.
  • Seismology