Assessment of radioactive leakages into the Kola Bay, Northwest Russia

Russia’s military and civilian nuclear powered maritime fleets operate in the Kola and Motovsky Bays on the northwest coast of Russia. The region has the highest concentration of nuclear reactors, active and derelict, in the world. In addition to military installations, a civilian nuclear icebreaker base, Atomflot, is located in Kola Bay. Waste inventory estimates for the region are difficult to obtain and verify due to the secrecy surrounding military operations in the Kola region. There has been great concern that nuclear-related activities along the Kola coast have resulted in unintentional discharges of radionuclides into the surrounding land, air, and sea.

Akvaplan-niva scientists, together with scientists from the Murmansk Marine Biological Institute, Russian Academy of Sciences, carried out an expedition in May-June 1996 to survey radioactivity levels in the marine environment. Marine sediments were collected from approximately 100 stations in areas near military and civilian nuclear installations and in the open waters of the two bays. Although evidence of waste leakages were found adjacent to some of the military installations and to the civilian nuclear installation, Atomflot, the environmental impact on the bays has been minimal.

Illustration: Radioactive cesium-137 in sediments collected adjacent to military and civilian installations throughout the Kola and Motovsky Bays, northwest Russia (Matishov et al., 1999).

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