221 



In addition to being a potential threat to the arctic environment, the real challenge of the Mayak 

 Plant is to organize an enormous clean up action that calls for a major international effort How 

 to do that is a political question. 



• About 80 nuclear submarines of the Northern Fleet should be disposed of during this decade, i.e. 

 about 150 nuclear reactors, and presently representing a hazard to the arctic envionmrnt. Russia 

 lacks proper nuclear storage and other resources to do it safely. 



This problem represents a major challenge both as to costs and safety, and there are few countries 

 that can contribute to the solution. 



• Nuclear testing to start at Novaya Zemlya in October this year. 



This decision is depending on US stopping their nuclear testing. I have noted that US Senate 

 recently has voted positively on this issue, and I really hope that this will be the final outcome. 

 The fragile arctic environment has been exposed to sufficient radio nuclides already. 



• Industrial emissions. 



Another type of threat to the arctic environment is industrial emissions both within the Arctic and 

 transported to the Arctic by air masses or in other ways. This is an ongoing process and alarming 

 values of heavy metals, PCB and other pesticides have been measured. 



Some emissions in the arctic part of Russia: 



- 716,000 tons of various toxic emissions in the Kola area 



- 2.6 million tons at Norilsk 



Although this contamination has the worst effects within the regions mentioned such as growing 

 industrial deserts, severe health damage etc., toxic clouds are drifting to most of the Arctic. An 

 illustration again: A report claims that in Norilsk children have to stay indoors 90 days a year 

 because of this pollution. 



• / refer you to Appendix I for further details and other examples. 

 2. Monitoring Programs. 



2.1 Ongoing Monitoring. 



There is a modest network of sampling stations in the Arctic as to radio nuclides transported by 

 air, supplemented by airborne programs. 



My main concern is that there is no regular monitoring of the arctic marine environment, 

 although some sampling has occurred in the Arctic Ocean and adjacent seas but more on an ad 

 hoc basis. 



For details see: Report on Radioactivity in the Arctic Region, prepared by O. Paakkola, in 

 The State of the Arctic Environment Reports, Rovaniemi 1991. 



