Northeast Atlantic dumping legacy: surveys confirm leaking radioactive barrels on the seafloor
A French expedition using the Nautile deep-sea submersible confirmed that more than 200,000 barrels dumped in the Northeast Atlantic in the 1960s–70s have leaked radioactive material, with radionuclides such as cobalt-60, niobium-94, cesium-137, and americium-241 detected above background levels near corroded containers on the seabed. Marine life now grows on some barrels, while researchers collected sediment, water, and biota samples to assess contamination. The waste was not designed for containment and may have dispersed over time; ongoing lab analyses and prior mapping are helping OSPAR evaluate the dumping legacy.
