title: The behaviour of ¹²⁹I released from nuclear fuel reprocessing factories in the North Atlantic Ocean and transport to the Arctic assessed from numerical modelling.
abstract: A quantitative evaluation of the fate of (129)I, released from the European reprocessing plants of Sellafield (UK) and La Hague (France), has been made by means of a Lagrangian dispersion model. Transport of radionuclides to the Arctic Ocean has been determined. Thus, 5.1 and 16.6 TBq of (129)I have been introduced in the Arctic from Sellafield and La Hague respectively from 1966 to 2012. These figures represent, respectively, 48% and 55% of the cumulative discharge to that time. Inventories in the North Atlantic, including shelf seas, are 4.4 and 13.8 TBq coming from Sellafield and La Hague respectively. These figures are significantly different from previous estimations based on field data. The distribution of these inventories among several shelf seas and regions has been evaluated as well. Mean ages of tracers have been finally obtained, making use of the age-averaging hypothesis. It has been found that mean ages for Sellafield releases are about 3.5 year larger than for La Hague releases.
authors.affiliation: Dpt Física Aplicada II, ETSIE, University of Sevilla, Spain.
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Villa
authors.affiliation: Dpt Física Aplicada I, EPS, University of Sevilla, Spain.
authors.forename: J M
authors.initials: JM
authors.lastname: López-Gutiérrez
authors.affiliation: KAERI, Daedeok-Daero 989-111, Yuseong-Gu, Daejeon, Republic of Korea.
authors.forename: Kyung-Suk
authors.initials: KS
authors.lastname: Suh
authors.affiliation: KAERI, Daedeok-Daero 989-111, Yuseong-Gu, Daejeon, Republic of Korea.
authors.forename: Byung-Il
authors.initials: BI
authors.lastname: Min
authors.affiliation: Dpt Física Aplicada I, ETSIA, Universidad de Sevilla, Ctra Utrera km 1, 41013 Sevilla, Spain. Electronic address: rperianez@us.es.
authors.forename: R
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Periáñez
mesh_terms: D001110:Arctic Regions; D005602:France; D005843:Geography; D007457:Iodine Radioisotopes / Q000032:analysis* / Q000737:chemistry; D008956:Models, Chemical; D008962:Models, Theoretical; D009678:Nuclear Energy; D009792:Oceans and Seas; D011851:Radioactivity; D012623:Seawater / Q000737:chemistry*; D006113:United Kingdom; D014872:Water Movements; D014875:Water Pollutants, Radioactive / Q000032:analysis* / Q000737:chemistry
chemical_list: D007457:Iodine Radioisotopes; D014875:Water Pollutants, Radioactive
keywords: Arctic Ocean; Atlantic Ocean; Dispersion; Iodine-129; Lagrangian model