200,000 abandoned radioactive barrels are sought off the coast of Galicia: we have only found 1,000

The Atlantic Ocean is one of the world’s largest nuclear cemeteries. It is estimated that more than 200,000 barrels with nuclear waste sent to the seabed rest Between 1946 and 1990. The mission to recover them is already underway.

First days of work. The French oceanographic ship L’Tarante has begun to work in the search for abandoned drums in Atlantic waters. It arrives with the work of locating some of these barrels and evaluating whether they have caused some kind of impact on marine ecosystems in the area.

The team has enforced their work since the first day. According to The local press reportsthe researchers managed to identify the first 1,000 drums and map their location. They have not yet transcended the first images of these barrels. The mission, called Nodssum-I, has an expected duration of one month.

The ship arrived a week ago in the area where it will perform its work, located in international waters about 650 kilometers northwest of the coast of Galicia. It is estimated that the more than 200,000 barrels distributed throughout the exploration area are found between 3,000 and 5,000 meters.

200,000 drums. According to Explain the responsible team From the project, barrels contain nuclear residues of low or medium radioactivity. These include sludge, contaminated metal parts, cation exchange resins and even office equipment. In order to resist the high pressures of the ocean fund, these materials would have been encapsulated in bitumen or cement, Add the American Society American.

Throughout the years that these waste has passed underwater, their radioactivity would have fallen significantly, it is added from the project. However, some long -term elements could still maintain a good part of this radioactivity.

In addition to identifying and locating these barrels, the mission will take photographs of these in order to evaluate their status and integrity. For now the plans do not include the possibility of recovering these barrels.

Evaluating the impact. Locating and studying drums is just one of the objectives of the mission. The team will collect water samples, sediments and even marine life to study the presence of radioactive or radiosiopo isotopes in them.

Thus they also intend to study the interactions between marine ecosystems and these radioisotypes; Also understand the transport of these atoms in the seabed through processes such as erosion and sedimentation, and also through marine currents.

Uly X. For this work the team will feature the instruments aboard L’Anchantante, including a 4.5 meter autonomous submarine called Uly X. This vehicle will allow researchers to photograph and study closely the lost drums in Atlantic waters.

Nodssum-i and nodssum-II. The mission of one month of L’Atalante will be only the first part in a project that will encompass two trips to the search area, Nodssum-I and Nodssum-II. For now, Nodssum-II is in the planning phase, but we know of it that it will be a monitoring mission that will take detailed samples thanks to a submarine remotely operated like the Victor ROV, or a minisubmarine like the Nautile.

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Image | French oceanographic fleet / Navire Océanographique L’Tarante