Anthropogenic radiocarbon in the eastern Irish Sea and Scottish coastal waters

Abstract

In the UK, 14C is discharged, under license, into the Eastern Irish Sea by the British Nuclear Fuels plc (BNFL) reprocessing plant at Sellafield, Cumbria, northwest England, and is then transported into Scottish coastal waters. Intertidal biota samples were analysed to determine the effect of these discharges. The specific activities of 14C found in these samples indicate that the uptake and bioaccumulation of 14C is dependent on the type of organism and its feeding behavior. -from Authors