Re-assessment of the nuclear waste dumping sites along the coast of Novaya Zemlya, Northwest Russia

From 1959 until the late 1980s large amounts of solid and liquid radioactive waste from the former Soviet Union were dumped in the Kara Sea. In addition to the Novaya Zemlya Trough, radioactive wastes were dumped into several shallow bays (Tsivolki Bay, Stepovogo Bay and Abrosimova Bay) along the eastern coast of Novaya Zemlya. In 2004, Akvaplan-niva was commissioned by the Norwegian Radiation Protection Authority in cooperation with Russian authorities, to carry out a re-assessment of radioactivity levels in the region of Novaya Zemlya. This work is the first assessment involving non-Russian institutes since the original assessments were carried out in the mid-1990’s. Approximately ten years after the earlier investigation, the levels of radionuclides in surface sediments collected close to the dumping sites remain elevated above the levels found at uncontaminated locations.

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