Novaya Zemlya

Thamnolia vermicularis is an arctic-alpine, fruticose, soil-dwelling lichen that enjoys a very wide distribution. The species consists of two chemical strains, one predominantly found in the Northern Hemisphere and the other in the Southern Hemisphere, with most populations from intermediate regions exhibiting intermediate chemical types. Sato (1965) showed that the southern strain accumulates thamnolic acid [403], whereas the northern strain is characterized by two compounds, squamatic acid [404] and baeomycic acid [405]. Populations from Greenland, Novaya Zemlya, and Svalbard exhibited only the northern profile. Two populations from South America exhibited only the southern type, while collections from New Zealand showed nearly pure southern type. 

It was pointed out above that the 18r W tracer observations, the excess 210Pb in the tropical stratosphere, and the radiochemical evidence from fallout samples collected by balloon can be reconciled with the slow mean motion of air upward across the equatorial tropopause and within the tropical stratosphere and outward toward higher latitudes at stratospheric levels up to about 35 km. Above 23 km. altitude, such mean motions poleward can explain the lack of significant equatorwards transport of fallout debris from Novaya Zemlya. In the stratosphere, below 23 km., meridional eddy mixing obscures the pattern of slow mean motions. However, even in this layer, little Soviet test debris mixes south of about 30 °N, suggesting that poleward mean motions restrict equator-wards transport by eddy mixing within the lower stratosphere between the equator and 30 °N. 

Kara Sea Novaya Zemlya Trough, Russia 86 samples from 9.5-240 Galasso, Siegel and Kravitz (2000)... 

Galasso, J.L., Siegel, F.R. and Kravitz, J.H. (2000) Heavy metals in eight 1965 cores from the Novaya Zemlya Trough, Kara Sea, Russian Arctic. Marine Pollution Bulletin, 40(10), 839-52. 

A detailed examination of all Novaya Zemlya fjords in connection with the dumping of radioactive waste. 

Measurements have been made by a Joint Norwegian-Russian Expert Group of the release of activity at the disposal sites for reactor compartments at Novaya Zemlya. Surface sediment samples at the sea bottom taken close to the dumped reactor compartments and the sunken submarine showed in a few cases activities of up to about 10 kBq/kg, but in most cases the activity of the samples was 100 Bq/kg or lower. At some distance from the dumped objects the level of radionuclides in sediments was close to the range obtained in the open Kara Sea [2]. It may also be mentioned that the activity of fish from the Baltic, measured in Bq/kg is more than a factor of 10 higher than the activity of fish from the Barents Sea. Thus the contamination caused by the dumped reactor compartments has so far been quite limited. Corrosion of the seawater will of course gradually increase the release of fuel and activated materials to the environment, but at the same time the activity will decrease due to radioactive decay... 

The majority of the north-east Atlantic disposals were of low-level solid waste at depths of 1500-5000 m, but the Arctic Sea disposals consist of various types of waste from reactors with spent fuel to containers with low-level solid waste dumped in fairly shallow waters ranging from about 300 m depth in the Kara Sea to less than 20 m depth in some fiords on the east coast of Novaya Zemlya. 

Oughton, D. H., Skipperud, L., Fifield, L. K., Cresswell, R. G., Salbu, B., and Day, P. 2004. Accelerator mass spectrometry measurement of Pu-240/Pu-239 isotope ratios in Novaya Zemlya and Kara Sea sediments. Appl Radiat Isotopes 61(2-3), 249-253. 

Diplogastridae, Mononchidae and Aporcelaimidae (less surprising was the absence of some families of plant parasitic nematodes). The Spitzbergen nemato-fauna was found to be very similar to that of northern Canada, Greenland and Novaya Zemlya. 

As for specific dumping sites, information about them is not as inaccessible. It can be found, for instance, on navigation maps where these sites were ciphered as "dumps of explosive substances . For example, two such sites, mentioned by eye-witnesses, were indicated on a map of the White Sea a site in the Kara Sea, near the northern part of Novaya Zemlya, and a site near the Povorotnyy Cape in the Sea of Japan. In total, there are no less than 12 large sea areas, although there are hundreds of specific sites [9]. 

The data on CW dumping near the Cape of Zhelanie, which is to the north of Novaya Zemlya (port of departure Pechenga), are not denied by the administration. 

Information on releases of Tc from waste disposal sites or from dumping of wastes including reactors with fuel in the marine environment, e.g., Kara Sea including bays of Novaya Zemlya, is not available. 

The ideal antineutrino detector would have a range of at least the diameter of the Earth (12,800 km) for a 1 kt detonation. However, shorter range detectors would have value as well. For example, a detector with a range of 3000 km for a 1 kt yield, located in Greenland could detect a 1 kt detonation at Novaya Zemlya or a detonation with a yield above, approximately, 10 kt anywhere on Earth. 

In May 1993 the Russian Federation provided information to the IAEA about the high and low level radioactive waste dumped in the Arctic Seas ("White Book-93"). According to the "White Book-93" the total amount of radioactivity dumped in the Arctic Seas was more than 90 PBq. The items dumped included six nuclear submarine reactors containing spent fuel, spent fuel from an icebreaker reactor, ten reactors without fuel, and liquid and solid low level waste. The nuclear reactors and the fuel from the icebreaker reactor were dumped in the shallow bays of Novaya Zemlya and in the Kara Sea. 

Table I presents a summary of pertinent disposal information for the marine reactors dumped in the Kara Sea [1], Figure 1 shows a map of the Northeast coast of Russia with Novaya Zemlya and the approximate locations of the five disposal sites.

TABLE XII. ESTIMATED 1994 ACTIVITY OF LONG-LIVED RADIONUCLIDES IN THE METAL CONTAINER ENCASED SEPARATED RIGHT BOARD REACTOR PRESSURE VESSEL FROM NUCLEAR SUBMARINE FACTORY NUMBER 421 DUMPED IN THE NOVAYA ZEMLYA DEPRESSION [3, 12]... 

In 1972, the barge containing the right board RPV of submarine factory number 421 was dumped in the Novaya Zemlya Depression at an estimated depth of 300 m [1, 4]. 

FIG. 20. Novaya Zemlya Depression, unit 421, total activity release for Scenario A. 

Novaya Zemlya a. Barge a UnsountP a UnsoumF Barge may not be used for... 

RUBTSOV, P., RUZHANSKY, P., Radiation Characteristic Estimation of Irradiated Nuclear Fuel in Reactors of Nuclear Submarine and Icebreaker Lenin Dumped near Novaya Zemlya Archipelago, State Institute for Applied Ecology, Ministry of Environmental Protection and Natural Resources of the Russian Federation, Moscow (1995). 

The realization that the United States had nuclear weapons, and was willing to use them against civilian populations, profoundly shocked the Soviet Union. They immediately embarked on an urgent program to develop their own nuclear weapons. The Cold War had begun. Between 1946 and 1962, the Soviet Union conducted 221 atmospheric tests in Semipalatinsk (Kazakhstan) and Novaya Zemlya (Russian Federation). Meanwhile, the United States cmiducted 216 atmospheric tests, 106 of which were only 63 miles from Las Vegas The fallout from these tests contained radioactive materials which were widely dispersed by the wind. As a result, millions of people across the northern hemisphere were exposed to radiation. 

The NSR is a central part of the Northeast Passage, a link between the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans. It is a complex myriad of routes between Novaya Zemlya... 

Industrial development in the Arctic started in the second decade of this century and was mainly focused on drilling and mining, construction and operation of smelters, construction of the cities. Simultaneously the Arctic was converted into a huge military base with its test-site on Novaya Zemlya and submarine fleet in the Kola Peninsula, and enormous GULAG empire. Industrial development in the Arctic was based on the labor of prisoners and soldiers, along with that of recruits. 

Testing of nuclear weapons was the first and the largest source of contamination of the global environment by radionuclides. As the result of atmospheric tests by the Soviet Union, the United States, Britain, France and China 25 millions curies of Cs, 16 million curies of Sr and 6,5 billion curies of tritium were released into the global atmosphere, mostly between 1955 and 1966 [OTA. p. 34]. The Soviet Union conducted 715 nuclear tests on Semipalatinsk and Novaya Zemlya test-sites between 1949 and 1990. 

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