For decades, the open ocean was treated as a dumping ground for radioactive waste. Far below the surface of the northeast Atlantic – where scientists once assumed inert and lifeless ecosystems – hundreds of thousands of (formally) sealed containers filled with nuclear waste were discarded. Today, their precise locations are uncertain, their condition largely unknown, and their ecological consequences only partially understood. A French-led scientific expedition set out to confront this legacy.
For decades, the open ocean was treated as a dumping ground for radioactive waste. Far below the surface of the northeast Atlantic – where scientists once assumed inert and lifeless ecosystems – hundreds of thousands of (formally) sealed containers filled with nuclear waste were discarded. Today, their precise locations are uncertain, their condition largely unknown, and their ecological consequences only partially understood. A French-led scientific expedition set out to confront this legacy.