#radionuclide-transfer

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.

Encase low- and intermediate-level radioactive waste in resin, bitumen, or cement, drum it, and sink it on the deep abyssal plain — relying on the ocean's vast volume and assumed stability to dilute any eventual release below harmful levels.

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

From 1949 to 1982, European states — the United Kingdom in large majority, alongside France, Belgium, the Netherlands, Switzerland and others — sank 200,000+ drums of radioactive waste encased in resin, bitumen or cemen…

The environmental-sampling arm of NODSSUM 2026, establishing the first multi-compartment baseline at the site. Alongside drum inspection, the team collected water, sediment and living-organism samples to study the dispe…