Legacy radioactive and hazardous waste deliberately dumped in the deep sea
#00117
From 1946–1990, ~14 nations dumped 200,000+ barrels of radioactive waste into the deep ocean under a
#00121Preventing new ocean disposal of hazardous waste
Stopping new ocean disposal is upstream of every other facet: the 200,000+ drums on the abyssal plain exist because deliberate sea dumping was accepted practice for decades. The priority now is keeping the ban in force, extending it to adjacent proposals, and ensuring it is actua
#00120Future seabed disturbance could re-mobilise buried waste
Dump sites overlap with emerging deep-sea uses — mining, bottom trawling, cable-laying. Disturbing degraded drums that are currently semi-contained could re-suspend and disperse their contents far more widely than passive decay would, turning a localised legacy into an active rel
#00119Radionuclide transfer into abyssal ecosystems and food webs is uncharacterised
It is largely unknown how radionuclides from degrading drums (Co-60, Nb-94, Cs-137, Am-241) move into deep-sea sediment, water, and living organisms over decades — and the drums themselves have become hard-substrate habitat, putting fauna in direct contact with the waste.
#00118Dump-site locations and drum condition are poorly known
Barrels were logged only approximately when dumped. Their exact positions on a 14,500 km² abyssal plain, their present state of corrosion, and which have already breached and spilled are largely unknown — you cannot manage or monitor what you cannot find.