The Fukushima nuclear power plant faced a tsunami just five meters above sea level. After a magnitude 9 earthquake on the Richter seismological scale, a series of critical infrastructure failures transformed it into a massive toxic volcano. It released more than 18,000 terabecquerels (TBq) of radioactivity into the sea; a spooky and poisonous vomit but five times lower, yes, its size Debris dumped into the Northwest Atlantic between the mid-1940s and 1982. These are data from the French Atomic Energy and Renewable Energies Commission (Alternatives to Commissariat à l’énergie atomique et aux énergies, CEA) gives an idea of the secondary and residual character that governments then give to the health of the oceans – better said. Thousands of steel and concrete barrels were thrown into the sea because it seemed like the best and only way to get rid of radioactive waste with the remnants of medical, military or nuclear industry materials. In addition to other deposits in Cantabria or the Bay of Biscay, some 220,000 ships have been launched 300 miles off the Galician coast and will not be considered by the European Commission as Brussels is newly settled. A job that will only take a country by itself: France plans two submarine missions to monitor its conditionas approved to FARO by a member of the research team.
It will be run by two academic institutions, the Université Clermont Auvergne and the École Normale Supérieure de Paris, under the direction of the departments of Physics and Geology, respectively. They will use an underwater robot with a remote crew (Unmanned Underwater Vehicle, UUV) is owned by Ifremer, a marine research center located in Brest. HE ulyx It is capable of diving to a depth of 6,000 meters and was launched in 2000. “The aim of our mission is to map and sample regions close to these remains and to understand their impact on this environment”explained the geologist Javier Escartín to the French newspaper L’Express.
Although oceanographic campaigns are not yet planned, the project is already underway. The goal is to make the first dives in 2024 and the rest the following year.. “To our knowledge, no fuel or high-level or long-lived waste has been dumped into the ocean,” he added to the scientific portal. CNRS Patrick Chardon, head of the Clermont Physics Laboratory. However, some debris contained isotopes of plutonium, with a lifetime of up to 300,000 years. No one knows what condition all these barrels are in.
A mission to the Atlantic Trench was not even considered in 2021, when the European Commission visited Galicia, Asturias or the Basque Country with a mission to “verify the radioactivity control in the marine environment of the Galician and Cantabrian coasts”. The study that emerged as a result of this trip, which was limited to the evaluation of the facilities that can analyze the wastes of this nature, found that “the technical state of these objects is unknown”. Whether they have corroded, are dangerous, or have deteriorated over the years.
Issues that Brussels does not intend to clarify as FARO DE VIGO progresses, as the Energy Commissioner rejects any submarine mission chartered by the Community Executive. Writing to Galician nationalist MEP Ana Miranda, Kadri Simson wrote, “Verification activities have shown that the necessary facilities are sufficient to control the radioactivity levels in the marine environment of the Galician and Cantabrian coasts.”
Therefore, France would be the only country that adheres to the presumably useful principles that were ratified by Franco’s Spain in 1973, forming the backbone of the so-called London Convention, where countries undertake to review the condition of the barrels. 25 years lifetime. Actually, The only missions that managed to find and save six barrels in the Northeast Atlantic were the French in the mid-1980s.. “They were placed by Ifremer and were in good condition, but no one knows how they are today,” Escartín said. Oceanographic campaign planned for next year It will focus on two areas of 6,000 square kilometers and 600 kilometers off the coast of France. These are primarily tasks that will require a ship equipped with side-scan sonar or multi-beam sonar, which will make it possible to map the seabed and locate the barrels, given that they are dispersed without control or fixed coordinates. “We don’t have access to very detailed bathymetry of the area or information about the location of the barrels.”
The second part of the mission will gather information on the impact of radioactive waste on the seabed or ecosystems., by taking samples of sediment, shell or fish. “We have many questions about radionuclides. We want to know if they escaped from the barrels and how they escaped. Do they move? Did they spread into the water column? Are they toxic to living organisms? France will answer these questions with its own resources. The result of the investigation is as predicted by both academic institutions. will be made public.
community report
The technical report by the European Commission’s Directorate-General for Energy begins, “There are no nuclear installations on the northern coast of Spain or the Spanish rivers that flow into the Cantabrian Sea that discharge radioactive material.” Posts – he argues – that it is not necessary to scroll down to assess the status of radioactive waste at 30 pages. A document that continues: “Possible sources of artificial radioactivity in the marine environment are, for example, radioactive discharges from other European countries and historical sources on the seafloor, among which steel and concrete radioactive waste containers (barrels) stand out. It was deposited on the seabed in the same so-called Atlantic Trench some 40-60 years ago”.
The condition of the body K8A 107-metre-long Soviet submarine sank off the Bay of Biscay in 1970 with two atomic reactors and several nuclear torpedoes. This was the first loss of a ship with these characteristics for the Soviet Union, an event attributed to a ship’s fire.
In the case of the so-called Atlantic Trench, they The United Kingdom, Netherlands, France, Belgium, Germany, Italy, Switzerland and Sweden are countries that have chosen the Galician coast to get rid of their supplies.
localization phase
First, barrels will be placed and recorded to assess their external condition. The first mission is expected to take place next year.
evaluation phase
With the help of the same robot, which can dive to a depth of 6 thousand meters, samples will be taken and the condition of this waste in the marine environment will be determined. An area of 6 thousand square kilometers will be scanned 600 kilometers off the coast of France.