More than 200,000 barrels of radioactive waste have lain scattered across the Atlantic Ocean for nearly 50 years, a relic of an era when dumping nuclear materials at sea was considered safe.
Between 1946 and 1990, European countries, including France and the UK, dumped barrels filled with radioactive materials, sealed in asphalt and concrete.
Today, these barrels rest thousands of feet below the surface, in trenches about 13,000 feet deep and hundreds of miles offshore from France.
Scientists have warned that the waste could enter the marine food chain and be absorbed by sea life. It could then reach seafood consumed by millions of humans, causing long-term health risks such as tissue damage and increased cancer rates.
Now, a team of French scientists has located 3,355 of the barrels during the first of two missions to investigate the fate of these submerged barrels.
Using sonar and the autonomous underwater robot UlyX, the team mapped the Abyssal Plains, roughly 400 miles off the French coast.
A second mission, expected next year, will measure radionuclides in water, sediments and marine organisms collected from the site.
Researchers will also analyze background radiation to distinguish contamination from the barrels versus other sources, such as nuclear accidents or authorized effluents from power plants.
A team of international scientists are searching for the 200,000 toxic barrels that were dumped in the Atlantic Ocean for nearly 50 years
Researchers conducted the first part of the mission this summer, mapping the seafloor and locating around 3,500 barrels
When European countries began dumping, it was initially done under national supervision and later placed under international control by the Nuclear Energy Agency (NEA).
NEA is an intergovernmental body of 34 member countries, including the US, that coordinates nuclear safety, technology and waste management.
A test disposal under NEA supervision took place in 1967, and regulations were introduced for different types of waste containers to improve handling safety.
A deep area in the outer Bay of Biscay was designated as the main disposal site.
Over roughly 15 years, European nations dumped about 42 petabecquerels of low-level radioactive waste into the North-East Atlantic.
While this sounds like an enormous amount, equivalent to 42 quadrillion atomic decays every second, most of the waste is low-level and spread across thousands of barrels on the ocean floor.
Experts said the deep-water location and the weak radioactivity of much of the material mean the immediate risk to humans is low, though long-term effects on marine life and the food chain remain a concern.
About one-third of the dumped material was tritium, a weak form of radiation considered insignificant.
Scientists have warned that the waste could enter the marine food chain and be absorbed by sea life. It could then reach seafood consumed by millions of humans, causing long-term health risks such as tissue damage and increased cancer rates
The submerged barrels have a lifespan of 20 to 26 years and are now long past their expected durability
These barrels rest thousands of feet below the surface, in trenches about 13,000 feet deep and hundreds of miles offshore from France
Most of the remainder consisted of beta and gamma emitters, which lose radioactivity over years or decades, while roughly two percent was alpha radiation.
Disposal at such depths was considered safer than shallow-water dumping.
Containers were designed to slow the release of radioactive material but not to prevent it entirely, allowing short-lived components to decay over several years.
The submerged barrels have a lifespan of 20 to 26 years and are now long past their expected durability.
Even though most contain low- or medium-level radioactive waste rather than the most dangerous materials, researchers caution that they still pose a potential long-term risk.
The team found that many of the barrels became home to marine life. A second mission is planned for next year, which will measure radionuclides in water, sediments and marine organisms collected from the site
Some radionuclides, such as strontium-90, mimic calcium and can be absorbed by marine organisms, potentially moving up the food chain.
Radionuclides are unstable elements that emit radiation as they decay, with half-lives ranging from years to billions of years. For instance, caesium-137 lasts about 30 years, plutonium-241 roughly 13 years, and uranium-238 around 4.5 billion years.
This means some remain radioactive and potentially harmful for generations.
The research team, led by the French National Centre for Scientific Research, set off from Brest, western France, in mid-June aboard the research vessel L’Atalante for a four-week expedition.
UlyX, a 15-foot autonomous underwater vehicle, mapped the seafloor and photographed barrels from as close as 30 feet.
So far, roughly 50 barrels have been documented visually.
Images captured some barrels that remained intact, others were corroded or deformed and many were colonized by sessile organisms such as sea anemones.
In some cases, leaks of unknown substances, likely bitumen, were observed.
Bitumen is a black, sticky mixture of hydrocarbons, either naturally occurring or a residue from petroleum processing.
The team also deployed traps to collect fish and amphipods for radioactive analysis.
Water samples were gathered at multiple depths, from the surface down to 15,430 feet above the seafloor. In total, the expedition collected 1,321 gallons of water, 345 sediment cores, and 19 biological samples.
‘Onboard radiation safety instruments detected values close to natural environmental background levels,’ the team said in a blog post.
‘However, precise laboratory analyses of sediments, water, and fish samples will require several months.’
Beyond radioactive measurements, the team is also testing for PFAS, industrial chemicals that persist in the environment and are suspected carcinogens.
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