Radioactive contamination in Svalbard
Is the snow on Svalbard's glaciers contaminated with radionuclides? It was studied by an international group of scientists, including Dr. Bartłomiej Luks and Dr. Adam Nawrot from the Polar Research and Marine Department of the Institute of Geophysics PAS. The group's work has just been published in the highly ranked Journal of Hazardous Materials.
High levels of radioactive waste were found in snow samples taken from glaciers in Svalbard, indicating long-range transport of nuclear waste particles from lower latitudes. This is likely due to an intrusion event of warm and humid air mass that brought pollutants from Central Europe to the Arctic in late April 2019. The study suggests that long-range transport plays a significant role in exposing Arctic environments to human pollution and highlights the need to improve our understanding of the impact of these events on Arctic pollution due to ongoing climate change.
We encourage you to read the full paper.
