Radiocaesium from Sellafield effluents in Greenland waters

Abstract

Since the middle of the 1970s, discharges of radiocaesium to the Irish Sea from the British Nuclear Fuels Ltd Sellafield (formerly Windscale) installation in Cumbria have increased the concentrations of ¹³⁷Cs and ¹³⁴Cs in the northern North Atlantic. In coastal British waters^1,2 enhanced concentrations have also been seen in the North Sea^3–5, the Danish Straits and western part of the Baltic Sea^4,5, the Norwegian coastal current^6,7, and the Barent and Greenland Seas⁷. We report here that radiocaesium from Sellafield is now detectable in the East Greenland polar current. The transit time from Sellafield is estimated at 6–8 yr. The concentrations in the polar current are approximately one-thousandth of those found in the North Channel by the outlet from the Irish Sea.