Author(s)

R. Rajar & D. Zagar

Abstract

Between 1966 and 1996 the French Government carried out a programme of nuclear weapons testing at Mururoa and Fangataufa atolls in the Tuamotu Archipelago in French Polynesia. In 1997/98 an international study was elaborated with the goal to show the impact of the testing on the environment. One of the aspects of this study was also to study the possible future outflow of radioactively contaminated sediments from the Mururoa lagoon into the Pacific Ocean. A 3D hydrodynamic (HD) and sediment transport model was used to calculate the circulation and the sediment outflow from the lagoon. The model is shortly described in the paper. Two scenarios were simulated: (a) Normal conditions, where tidal forcing and easterly trade wind of 8 m/s were taken into account. The outflow of sediment

Keywords