In the crystal clear water of the northeastern Atlantic Ocean, a fish slides along an object that looks out of white sand. Dark seaweeds lie like a haze over the metal surface of the object. It is a barrel filled with radioactive waste, dumped into the sea between the 1950s and nineties – and it is only one of 200,000 copies.
The photo of this peaceful scene was taken by an autonomous underwater robot, which can reach depths of up to six thousand meters. The robot was part of a four -week expedition From about forty oceanographers, ecologists and radiochemists led by the French Center National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS). Their goal was to detect the barrels, assess their condition and to take water samples from the area.
The first barrels were dumped by the United States in 1946, on depths of more than four thousand meters. The United Kingdom, Belgium and France followed their example. At that time it was thought that there was no life possible on the deep ocean plains. International waters, where no regulations are in force, “seemed to be a suitable place to get rid of waste,” says Patrick Chardon on the CNRS News website. Chardon is an expert in the field of environmental effects of radioactivity and jointly responsible for the expedition.
In the early 1970s, scientists grew the realization that the deposit of waste at sea can harm the marine ecosystem. That led to the realization of the so -called LC Conventionintended to prevent contamination of the sea. That resulted in a complete ban on practice in the nineties.
During the expedition, which ended on 11 July, the researchers found 3,350 barrels in an area of 163 square kilometers. Although the radioactive waste in the vessels is mixed with bitumen or concrete to resist the blow in the water, some barrels are damaged or distorted, according to the researchers. Nevertheless, they have not measured increased radiation values in the water.
“As far as we know, only materials such as gloves, laboratory equipment and samples have been dumped in the sea-all belonging to the categories of very layer, low or middle radioactive waste,” Chardon explains.
The researchers do not intend to bring the barrels to the surface. On the website of the expedition they declare that the risk would be too great for the researchers, the logistics is too complex and the scientific added value is lacking.
It is still unknown whether the radioactive waste has since leaked from the barrels, has spread and whether it is harmful to living organisms. To answer those questions, the group of scientists has planned a second expedition next year.