Environmental radionuclide monitoring of Canadian harbours: a decade of analyses in support of due diligence activities by the Royal Canadian Navy

Abstract

The Royal Canadian Navy has conducted a comprehensive programme of safety, security and environmental monitoring since the first visits of nuclear powered and nuclear capable vessels (NPV/NCVs) to Canadian harbours in the late 1960s. The outcomes of baseline monitoring and vessel visit sampling for the period 2003-2012 are described for vessel visits to Halifax (NS), Esquimalt (BC) and Nanoose (BC). Data were obtained by gamma-ray spectroscopy using high purity germanium detectors. No evidence was found for the release of radioactive fission or activation products by NCV/NPVs during the study period, although anthropogenically produced radionuclides were observed as part of the study's baseline monitoring. Background activities of Cs-137 can be observed in sediments from all three locations which are derived from well-documented radioactivity releases. The detection of I-131 in aquatic plants is consistently observed in Halifax at activities as high as 15,000 Bq kg(-1) dry weight. These data are tentatively assigned to the release of medical I-131, followed by bioaccumulation from seawater. I-131 was also observed in aquatic plants samples from Esquimalt (33 Bq kg(-1)) and Nanoose (20 Bq kg(-1)) for a single sampling following the Fukushima Daiichi accident.

Keywords: Bioaccumulation; Iodine-131; Nuclear vessel monitoring.