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THE NATURE AND SOURCES OF RADIOACTIVE AND HAZARDOUS 

 CONTAMINATION IN THE ARCTIC 



Potential arctic contaminants from the nuclear weapons complex of the Former 

 Soviet Union (FSU) include radionuclides and the following non-nuclear 

 hazardous wastes: volatile organic and other organic compounds, inorganic 

 compounds, heavy metals, and buried objects (tanks, barrels, and other 

 containers) . 



The Department uses a number of characterization technologies, but the 

 majority of the Department's programs and activities currently address 

 contamination and pollution of land and groundwater rather than of deep-water 

 areas. 



There are four principal sources of discharges of radioactive and hazardous 

 materials into the Arctic: Soviet nuclear weapons production plant 

 discharges; atmospheric nuclear weapon testing; waste disposal; and ocean 

 dumping. 



Radioactive and hazardous materials that ultimately entered the Arctic were 

 created in the late 1940s when the Soviet Union started up its first 

 reprocessing plant at the Chelyabinsk nuclear weapons production complex about 

 1000 miles southwest of Moscow. Highly radioactive and hazardous waste 

 solutions from the plant were discharged directly into the Techa River and 

 ultimately entered the Kara Sea several hundred miles east of the island of 

 Novaya Zemlya in northern Russia. Recent Russian statements estimate that 



