78 



close to three million curies of long-lived fission products were disposed of 

 in this manner. However, these estimates have not been confirmed. 



The Former Soviet Union began nuclear weapons testing at Novaya Zemlya in 1955 

 and continued through 1990, when a self-imposed testing moratorium was 

 announced. The testing, particularly prior to the mid-1960s, ultimately 

 resulted in the radioactive materials being carried into the stratosphere and 

 distributed over the Northern Hemisphere, including Alaska. 



There are many recent unconfirmed Russian and Western reports that Novaya 

 Zemlya and its shallow bays have been used as a disposal site for unknown 

 quantities of the radioactive wastes from Soviet military activities. 



Andrey Zolotkov, a former deputy to the Supreme Soviet from Murmansk, 

 announced last September that the Former Soviet Union had practiced ocean 

 dumping of hazardous and highly radioactive wastes in the Barents and Kara 

 Seas between 1964 and 1986. According to Zolotkov, 10,250 containers (each 

 one cubic meter in volume) were dumped into the Arctic waters between 60 to 

 110 feet deep. 



