Table 23. Quantities of radioactive wastes, originating mostly from nuclear research centers in
Belgium, France, Federal Republic of Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Sweden, Switzerland, and
the United Kingdom, which have been dumped into the Atlantic under the supervision of the
Nuclear Energy Agency of the OECD. Most dumping campaigns were with the British freighter
'"Topaz". 1967-1969 the dumping area was at 42° -43°N, 14° -15~, 1971-1975 a 70-mile
circle around 46°15'N, 17°25'W, 1976 a rectangle at 46°N, 16°00' -17°30'E, all approximately
1000 km away from the European coast, on 4500 m of water in the deep sea (Olivier 1978)
Year
Dumped weight
Alpha activity
Beta-gamma activity
t
Ci
Ci
1967
10,840
250
7,600
1969
9,180
500
22,000
1971
3,970
630
11,200
1972
4,130
680
21,600
1973
4,350
740
12,600
1974
2,270
420
100,000 (mostly tritium)
1975
4,460
780
60,500 (30,000 tritium)
1976
6,770
880
53,500 (21,000 tritium)
total
45,970
4,880
289,000
Convention (see Chap. 10) the OECD has stopped the dumping of radioactive waste;
since then this is settled by the participating states at their own responsibility and the
Nuclear Energy Agency has only a controlling function.
The U.S.S.R oppose this practice of dumping radioactive waste into the ocean, and
both Sweden and the U.S.A. hold nothing in favor of the "diluting-philosophy" and
prefer depositing radioactive waste on land which often is also cheaper. Especially in
Great Britain one is, however, of the opinion, that the best way to get rid of such
wastes, which are somewhat too active to deal with by simple burial and have halflives too long to permit storage for decay, is to dump them into the sea.
Incidentally, the waste dumped into the sea does not consist of high-level radioactive
material; the London Convention forbids this. A considerable amount of the waste is
made up of isotopes that have half-lives of less than I year, so that within 10 years
the radioactivity of these materials will have disappeared almost entirely (Kautsky
1972). In addition the waste is mixed with cement and bitumen and packed into
steel drums. It is expected to take some years until the iron coating is corroded to
such an extent that the nucleus of cement and bitumen is fully exposed to the influence of the seawater, and that it will then take many more years until the substances
inside the nucleus, too, could be leached out. By that time their radioactivity will
have almost completely disappeared.
In the meantime the International Atomic Energy Agency has defmed (IAEA 1975)
what is to be regarded as high-level radioactive waste: this is the case when more than
1 million Ci tritium, more than 1000 Ci beta-, and gamma-emitters, more than 100 Ci
strontium-90 + caesium-I 37 or more than 10 Ci alpha-emitters with half-lives of over
50 years, are included in 1 t of waste. These figures were based on the assumption,
that up to 10 10 Ci of alpha-emitters, up to 10 13 Ci beta-, and gamma-emitters and
up to 10 15 Ci of tritium could annually be discharged into the Atlantic Ocean without causing any damage, the safety factor being higher than 10,000. In the meantime,
113
Belgium, France, Federal Republic of Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Sweden, Switzerland, and
the United Kingdom, which have been dumped into the Atlantic under the supervision of the
Nuclear Energy Agency of the OECD. Most dumping campaigns were with the British freighter
'"Topaz". 1967-1969 the dumping area was at 42° -43°N, 14° -15~, 1971-1975 a 70-mile
circle around 46°15'N, 17°25'W, 1976 a rectangle at 46°N, 16°00' -17°30'E, all approximately
1000 km away from the European coast, on 4500 m of water in the deep sea (Olivier 1978)
Year
Dumped weight
Alpha activity
Beta-gamma activity
t
Ci
Ci
1967
10,840
250
7,600
1969
9,180
500
22,000
1971
3,970
630
11,200
1972
4,130
680
21,600
1973
4,350
740
12,600
1974
2,270
420
100,000 (mostly tritium)
1975
4,460
780
60,500 (30,000 tritium)
1976
6,770
880
53,500 (21,000 tritium)
total
45,970
4,880
289,000
Convention (see Chap. 10) the OECD has stopped the dumping of radioactive waste;
since then this is settled by the participating states at their own responsibility and the
Nuclear Energy Agency has only a controlling function.
The U.S.S.R oppose this practice of dumping radioactive waste into the ocean, and
both Sweden and the U.S.A. hold nothing in favor of the "diluting-philosophy" and
prefer depositing radioactive waste on land which often is also cheaper. Especially in
Great Britain one is, however, of the opinion, that the best way to get rid of such
wastes, which are somewhat too active to deal with by simple burial and have halflives too long to permit storage for decay, is to dump them into the sea.
Incidentally, the waste dumped into the sea does not consist of high-level radioactive
material; the London Convention forbids this. A considerable amount of the waste is
made up of isotopes that have half-lives of less than I year, so that within 10 years
the radioactivity of these materials will have disappeared almost entirely (Kautsky
1972). In addition the waste is mixed with cement and bitumen and packed into
steel drums. It is expected to take some years until the iron coating is corroded to
such an extent that the nucleus of cement and bitumen is fully exposed to the influence of the seawater, and that it will then take many more years until the substances
inside the nucleus, too, could be leached out. By that time their radioactivity will
have almost completely disappeared.
In the meantime the International Atomic Energy Agency has defmed (IAEA 1975)
what is to be regarded as high-level radioactive waste: this is the case when more than
1 million Ci tritium, more than 1000 Ci beta-, and gamma-emitters, more than 100 Ci
strontium-90 + caesium-I 37 or more than 10 Ci alpha-emitters with half-lives of over
50 years, are included in 1 t of waste. These figures were based on the assumption,
that up to 10 10 Ci of alpha-emitters, up to 10 13 Ci beta-, and gamma-emitters and
up to 10 15 Ci of tritium could annually be discharged into the Atlantic Ocean without causing any damage, the safety factor being higher than 10,000. In the meantime,
113