VIDEO: IAEA Launches Antarctica Microplastics Research

Is there microplastic pollution in Antarctica? Research has shown microplastics – plastic particles below five mm in diameter – are already present in Antarctica. This week IAEA Director General Rafael Mariano Grossi travelled to the continent together with the President of Argentina, Javier Milei to launch a new project to better understand the scope of the problem. IAEA scientific experts from its Marine Environment Laboratories in Monaco will remain in Antarctica to collect samples for later analysis under the IAEA’s NUTEC Plastics initiative. NUTEC Plastics (NUclear TEChnology for Controlling Plastic Pollution) builds on the IAEA’s efforts to deal with plastic pollution through recycling using radiation technology and marine monitoring using isotopic tracing techniques.