Radiological status of the marine environment in the Barents Sea

Selected anthropogenic and natural radioisotopes in the Barents Sea and off the western coast of Svalbard

“…The 137 Cs and 90 Sr concentrations in surface waters observed in this study generally agree with 137 Cs and 90 Sr concentrations found in Barents Sea in previous studies (Gwynn et al, 2012). In addition, 90 Sr concentrations of 1e2 Bq/m 3 in seawater have been observed in the Arctic waters on the western side of Greenland, in the Pacific (Dahlgaard et al, 2004;Yang et al, 2002).…”

“…The average 90 Sr activity concentration found in this study was slightly higher than the average concentration of 1.0 AE 0.2 Bq/m 3 observed by Gwynn et al (2012) in the Barents Sea and than the values of 1.0e2.0 Bq/m 3 observed by Dahlgaard et al (2004) in the seas surrounding Greenland. The volumetric 90 Sr concentrations were comparable to the activity concentrations of 2.9e4.4 Bq/m 3 found in the Irish Sea and lower compared to the average concentration of 8.7 Bq/m 3 found in the Baltic Sea (Leonard et al, 1998;Zalewska and Lipska, 2006).…”

“…The mean 137 Cs activity concentrations shown here agree with previous studies done in the Barents Sea. Gwynn et al (2012) reported the mean open sea surface sediment 137 Cs activity concentration of 2.53e 3.59 Bq/kg d.w. (Gwynn et al, 2012) while Heldal et al (2002) and Zaborska et al (2010) reported a range of concentration found near Svalbard, <0.5e9.3 Bq/kg d.w and <0.1e10.5 Bq/kg d.w., respectively.…”

“…The concentrations were all around 0.2 Bq/kg w.w. These values agreed with previously reported 137 Cs in Barents Sea fish and are nearly equal to the concentrations of 0.22 AE 0.04 Bq/kg w.w. measured in cod (Heldal et al, 2003) and 0.1 Bq/kg w.w. measured in haddock near the Faroe Islands and in the Barents Sea (Dahlgaard et al, 2004;Gwynn et al, 2012). In 1993 and 1994 a study of 137 Cs concentrations in various fish in the Barents Sea was conducted, in cod the observed concentration was 0.7e0.9 Bq/kg w.w. and in haddock 0.2e0.5 Bq/kg.w.w.…”

Elemental and Mineral Composition of the Barents Sea Recent and Late Pleistocene−Holocene Sediments: A Correlation with Environmental Conditions

“…Specific activities of caesium-137 in the surface layer of bottom sediments taken in the northern and western parts of the sea in 2007-2009 amounted to 0.3-6.2 Bq/kg [95]. In the same period, another study was conducted in the central, northern, and western parts of the water area with approximately the same results [96]. Similar values are given in the work of Matishov et al [97] for sediments that were sampled in 2001-2007 in various locations of the Barents Sea, including stations near the Franz Josef Land and Novaya Zemlya archipelagoes.…”