ENGINEERS installing the world鈥檚 first commercial wave-power generator off the Scottish coast this week risk being contaminated with radioactivity that has leaked from the Dounreay nuclear plant, according to the government鈥檚 industrial pollution inspectorate. The inspectorate has expressed 鈥渞eservations鈥� about positioning the Osprey generator just off Dounreay while the source and extent of contamination at the site are still being investigated.
The UK Atomic Energy Authority is currently in the middle of a comprehensive monitoring programme designed to discover all Dounreay鈥檚 hitherto unknown radiation hot spots. In the past two months, 21 potentially lethal particles have been found lying around the site, apparently having fallen off the back of a lorry more than thirty years ago (This Week, 15 July). Over the past 18 years, about 150 similar particles have been found on the Dounreay foreshore. The government鈥檚 Radioactive Waste Management Advisory Committee says these particles originated from an explosion in a waste shaft in 1977.
Osprey, developed by Applied Research and Technology of Inverness, should have been towed down the Clyde and around the Scottish coast last week. But an electrical fault in the tug delayed its departure until this week.
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鈥淭he timing is bad. It just does not seem sensible to do this at this time,鈥� says a spokesman for Her Majesty鈥檚 Industrial Pollution Inspectorate, which is based at the Scottish Office in Edinburgh. The inspectorate was asked for its views by the Highland Regional Council. In September, the council is due to consider a planning application to lay a cable from Osprey across the Dounreay foreshore in order to connect the generator to the national grid.
The inspectorate has not, however, communicated its concerns to Applied Research and Technology or to the Crown Estate, which as owner of the seabed has approved the tethering of Osprey off Dounreay. 鈥淭he actions of the inspectorate are truly bizarre,鈥� claims Graham Stein from Friends of the Earth Scotland. 鈥淚t is an admission of their own failure to monitor and control emissions from Dounreay.鈥�
Dounreay itself is confident that the Osprey鈥檚 installation can be carried out safely. According to the plant鈥檚 spokesman, Derrick Milnes, all the people and equipment involved will be individually monitored for radiation. 鈥淎s far as we are concerned there should be no problem whatsoever,鈥� he says.