¹³⁷Cs content and concentration factors in benthic organisms in the dump sites for solid radioactive waste in the Kara Sea

¹ Joint stock company “Altair-STPC”, Aviamotornaya Str. 57, Moscow 111024, Russia
² P.P. Shirshov Institute of Oceanology, Russian Academy of Sciences, Nakhimovsky Pr. 36, 117997 Moscow, Russia

Corresponding author: domanov@ocean.ru

Abstract

Radioactive contamination was studied in macrobenthic invertebrates and algae of the Abrosimov, Stepovoy and Tsivolky Bays of the Novaya Zemlya Archipelago and the adjacent regions of the Kara Sea during the cruises 73d and 81st on board R/V Professor Shtokman in the years 2005–2006. Maximum concentration ¹³⁷Cs in sediment in studied area has been detected in the layer 10–12 cm in the Abrosimov Bay (150 Bq/kg) and in the layer 4–6 cm in the Stepovoy Bay (100 Bq/kg). Concentration of ¹³⁷Cs in benthos was up to 3.19 Bq/kg of wet weight. The highest concentration has been found in benthos of the Abrosimov and Stepovoy Bays: the holothurian Myriotrochus rinkii, the isopod Saduria sabini, ophiuroids Ophiocten sericeum and Stegophiura nodosa. Myriotrochus rinkii, Saduria sabini and the brown alga Laminaria saccharina were characterized by the highest ¹³⁷Cs concentration factor – 994, 599 and 425 respectively. Caesium-137 contamination occurs locally in the studied area closed to the radioactive waste disposal and does not affect on qualitative structure of the macrobenthic communities.