Russia unveals huge sea nuclear dump

(CC by NormanEinstein)

A nuclear submarine (the K-27) with spent fuel in both reactors, 14 nuclear reactors, some of them with fuel, 19 ships containing radioactive waste, 17,000 containers full of radioactive waste, 735 other pieces of radioactively contaminated machinery. 

All that and maybe more was dumped in the Kara Sea, a subdivision of the Arctic Ocean bordering Nenets lands. The data has been revealed to Norwegian environmentalist NGO Bellona by Russian authorities in the last two years and now published by Norwegian media. 

Bellona has been tracking the case since 1992 and praised the openness of the Russian government. Meanwhile the Norwegian nuclear authorities suspect that this may not be all because Russia has been generally reluctant to reveal this massive environmental crime, revealing the data only gradually.

There is concern that the reactors of the K-27 could achieve recriticality but of course the greatest concern is radioactive contamination of the Arctic. 

Source: Bellona (via EneNews).

Arctic almost without ice

The Arctic sea ice coverage reached a record low these days. There is even less ice than in the previous record of 2007 and it has yet to decrease even more before the partial recovery of the winter season. 

In 2008-2011 there was an unusually long and strong solar minimum, which is associated with lower global temperatures. However the temperatures of these years were just "normal". Now that the peculiar solar phase has ended, we should expect ever growing global temperatures for the next 9 or 10 years. 

So it is not like this ice minimum won't repeat itself until at least 2016 or 2017; instead we must expect less ice every single year (unless a super-volcano or something of the kind alters solar input levels, reducing temperatures). The truce of these last few years can be misleading for those ignoring the solar sunspot cycle.

This loss of Ice does not just affect the Arctic Sea but is correlated with loss of ice in all other locations: Antarctica, Greenland, mountain glaciers all over the world, permafrost under the tundra...