THE British government is promising to cut the amount of radioactive waste it
dumps in the sea in response to international concern about the risks to human
health and the environment.
At a meeting in Brussels this week of the 15 countries belonging to the OSPAR
Commission鈥攚hich agrees policy on marine pollution in northern
Europe鈥擭orway, Denmark, Ireland, Belgium and Iceland will press for
discharges of radioactivity from British and French nuclear plants to be reduced
to 鈥渃lose to zero鈥�. They are concerned that some emissions from the reprocessing
plants at Sellafield in northwest England, Dounreay in Scotland and La Hague in
Normandy are increasing. 鈥淎ll the Nordic countries believe that there should be
more efforts to reduce radioactive discharges into the sea from reprocessing
plants,鈥� says Per Shiva, deputy director-general of the Norwegian Environment
Ministry.
One radionuclide released from Sellafield, technetium-99, is now present in
Irish Sea lobsters at 40 times the concentrations found in 1993, official
records show. These levels far exceed the European safety limit for food
contamination after a nuclear accident. Dounreay has plans to increase its
emissions of some radionuclides. Within the past month, 20 鈥渉ot particles鈥� have
been discovered on the seabed near the plant.
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At La Hague, environmentalists say they have found high levels of radioactive
pollution in sediment and seawater near the discharge pipeline.
Greenpeace is lodging a formal complaint with the European Commission, accusing
La Hague of breaching European law by failing to assess the environmental impact
of its discharges.
In the past Britain has opposed radical cuts in emissions, but as New
快猫短视频 went to press the environment minister, Michael Meacher,
announced that there must be a 鈥渕ajor reduction鈥� in radioactive discharges to
the sea. The contamination of lobsters by technetium-99 from Sellafield had
risen 鈥渨orryingly鈥�, he said. 鈥淲e want to put a stop to that.鈥�