234 



impact to fisheries. Since answen to such questions are so critical when we speak of possible 

 radioactive contamination, a strategy must be developed to involve excellent multidiscipUnary 

 scientific research, in addition to mere monitoring. The problem must involve the major scientific 

 apparatus of states. 



accidental releases op radioactive material from the former soviet 

 Union 



As this hearing unfolds, a large and varied number of examples of accidental contamination of the 

 arctic environment will be brought to light I will use the story of Chernobyl to illustrate that it is 

 by no means an academic issue to q)eak of a rapid and unexpected contamination of the Arctic. As 

 it happened, the weather patterns were anomalous during late April and eariy May when the plume 

 spread out The radioactive cloud traveled along the north Pacific, thus sparing the Arctic from 

 receiving what otherwise might have been a catastrophic event 



When the 1000-megawatt nuclear power plant at Chernobyl village, 80 miles North of Kiev in the 

 Ukraine, lost coolant to the reactor's core in April, 1986, the fission continued within the nuclear 

 fuel rods: without water to cool them off, heat built up rapidly. As the temperature rose, the 

 remaining water turned to steam and gases which exploded, shattering the building, igniting the 

 graphite and blowing out the core. The radioactive material injected into the atmosphere split into 

 two paths, one passing over and affecting Scandinavia, the other traveling across southern Siberia 

 and the north Pacific. 



Strong storm systems near the Aleutian Islands helped scrub the radioactivity out of the 

 atmosphere, resulting in only modest amounts of debris falling out on western North America, 

 including Alaska. Rgure 1 shows the rise, then decline of radioactive material measured by the 

 University of Alaska after the Chemob^ explosion. 



I 

 i 



■ ■ I ■ I ' I ■ I 



116 126 136 146 156 166 176 166 196 206 

 (Apr. 26) 



Day of collection 



Figure 1 . Time profiles of the Iodine 131 concentrations at Fairbanks. 



