Radionuclide transfer into abyssal ecosystems and food webs is uncharacterised
#00119
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.
#00123Multi-compartment sampling with a repeatable long-term monitoring baseline
Collect paired water, sediment, and biota samples at graded distances from breached drums, measuring dump-specific radionuclides (cobalt-60, niobium-94, caesium-137, americium-241) to separate dump-derived signal from fallout background — with fixed reference targets enabling rep