(October 16, 1992) On 7 October, Friends of the Earth-UK revealed the existence of previously unreported radioactive 'hot-spots' caused by discharges from the nuclear reprocessing facility at Sellafield in Cumbria. The new hot spots were found by FOE's Radiation Monitoring Unit in 17 different areas along the estuaries of South Cumbria, Lancashire, Merseyside and North Wales. They exposed both the extent of radioactive contamination from reprocessing in these areas and the failure of official monitoring.
(379/80.3718) WISE Amsterdam - As disturbing as the revelations are, FOE also pointed out that this radioactive legacy will be ignored by the official bodies currently deciding whether to permit British Nuclear Fuels plc (BNFL) to massively increase its discharges from Sellafield. During this process, the radioactive legacy of Sellafield will, says FOE, be officially treated in the same way as natural n or 'background' n radiation.
The revelations are taken from a detailed report which will be published in November. They were made just nine days before the planned 8-week public consultation by Her Majesty's Inspectorate of Pollution (HMIP) to examine BNFL's application for permission for the increases. In the application, BNFL asks for permission to increase the discharges from Sellafield to the sea by up to 487% (nearly 6-fold) and to the air up to 7,962% (more than 80-fold). (Since then, the consultation has been postponed by HMIP, with no explanation given. It is now expected to begin 16 October or later.) If the application is granted, this will allow BNFL to expand its reprocessing operations by 70% by starting up the new THORP reprocessing plant by the end of this year.
Ignoring the Legacy
The Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food (MAFF) is jointly responsible with HMIP for authorizing the increase in discharges from Sellafield. It must judge whether internationally recommended limits for public exposure to radiation are going to be exceeded as a result of the proposed increase and therefore whether controls on discharges are needed.
However, MAFF argues that, in making such a judgment, it needs to consider only the radiation risk to the public arising from the future discharges. This ignores the radiation dose to the public from the contamination already in the environment, currently responsible for approximately 80% of the radiation dose received each year by the public from Sellafield discharges. In this way MAFF simply discounts the legacy of existing contamination by treating it as if it was 'background' radiation.
Commenting on this failure of official bodies to take existing contamination into account when considering limits on future discharges, Dr. Patrick Green, FOE's Radiation Campaigner, said: "MAFF's proposal to ignore Sellafield's contaminated legacy is absurd and dangerous. This is MAFF wiping the official slate clean for BNFL while it sanctions further contamination of the environment and risk to the public. The damage done so far by Sellafield cannot be undone, but further discharges can, and must, be stopped."
Friends of the Earth (FOE) is asking people to write to HMIP during the 8-week consultation period to protest BNFL's plans to increase discharges from Sellafield. Write to: Mr Mark Mardell, Her Majesty's Inspectorate of Pollution, Mitre House, Church Street, Lancaster LA1 1BG.
Source: GreenNet, gn:foe.press 7 Oct. 1992.
Contact: For a Technical Briefing on Friends of the Earth's Hot-Spots, call Simon Roberts, +44-71 490 0224 or write to Dr. Patrick Green, FOE Radiation Campaigner, FOE-UK, 26-28 Underwood St., London N1 7QJ, UK.
[Note: "Sellafield - The Contaminated Legacy", by Nick Cassidy and Dr. Patrick Green, will be published in November 1992. This report will constitute the main body of FOE submission to the HMIP consultation.]