The new results of experimental studies of fission products release from spent nuclear fuel of the icebreaker “Lenin” reactor dumped in the Kara Sea

¹ I. Il’ichev Pacific Oceanological Institute, FEB RAS, 690041 Vladivostok, Russia
² National Research Centre “Kurchatov Institute”, 123182 Moscow, Russia
³ Institute for Nuclear Research RAS, 117312 Moscow, Russia

Abstract

The new technologies were developed for spent nuclear fuel (SNF) condition operative monitoring and search for the lost objects with SNF at the sea bottom using Kr-85. The new paradigm of sea radioecology based on extensive research was proposed. The investigations include a preliminary experimental study of kinetics of fission products (Kr-85 and Cs-137) release from SNF, a subsequent expedition to the Arctic, as well as modeling radionuclides transfer in a near-bottom layer by means of fractal formalism using hydrological data on the expedition area [1,2]. Series of original experimental studies on Kr-85 and Cs-137 release from SNF during corrosion in sea water were conducted in 2002–2010. Time dependence of fission products (FP) release was measured in laboratory under conditions typical of a near-bottom water layer in the Novaya Zemlya Basin. Another important result was received during the expedition to the Arctic in the fall of 2000. The H-3 anomaly was recognized in the surface layer of the Kara Sea in the Novaya Zemlya Basin (228 ± 9.1 TU vs.10–15 TU in the Arctic on average!). This anomaly is located 100 miles south from the dumped reactor of atomic icebreaker “Lenin”. So it can be caused by SNF from the reactors of icebreaker “Lenin” or nuclear submarine K-140.