Radioactive particle on Scottish beach judged safe

["Sandy Perle" <sandyfl@earthlink.net>]

Radioactive particle on Scottish beach judged safe
  
LONDON, July 19 (Reuters) - Scotland's environmental watchdog said on 
Wednesday a radioactive particle has been found on a public beach 
near the Dounreay nuclear reprocessing facility in northern Scotland 
but it did not present a danger to people. 

``We do not believe the radioactivity level of the particle warrants 
the appropriate authority closing the beach,'' a spokesman for the 
Scottish Environment Protection Agency (SEPA) told Reuters. 

Workers from the United Kingdom Atomic Energy Authority (UKAEA), 
which operates Dounreay, found the particle of irradiated fuel, 
roughly the size of a grain of sand, at Sandside Beach on July 17. 

Similar particles have been found on the private foreshore at the 
Dounreay facility at the rate of about one per month since 1983. The 
particles exited the plant during the 1960s and 1970s. 

SEPA said it had assessed the level of danger posed by the particle 
found on July 17 if ingested by a human. 

``Calling for the beach to be closed was one of the options 
considered, but rejected,'' the spokesman said. Dounreay is located 
in the far north of Scotland in a sparsely populated area. 

In March last year the Committee on Medical Aspects of Radiation in 
the Environment (COMARE) said radioactive particles from Dounreay 
could cause fatalities if ingested in sufficient quantities. 

SEPA said it would take ``several thousands of the low level 
radioactive particles of the kind found on the public beach to be 
ingested over a six month period to cause a fatality.'' 

But, a number of particles found on the Dounreay foreshore, where 
there is no public access, have had much higher radioactive levels 
and one of these particles by itself could cause serious injury, SEPA 
said. 

The National Radiological Protection Board concluded in 1998 the main 
risk to health was from eating locally caught shellfish. Since 
October 1997 there has been a government ban on fishing within two 
kilometres of Dounreay. 

Dounreay was at the cutting edge of nuclear technology when built in 
the 1950s, but is set to close by 2006. 

Mounting health and safety criticism and a catalogue of errors which 
included using household polyfilla and plaster of paris to solidify 
liquid waste helped prompt the government in June 1998 to shut the 
plant on economic grounds. 

------------------------------------------------------------------------
Sandy Perle					Tel:(714) 545-0100 / (800) 548-5100   				    	
Director, Technical				Extension 2306 				     	
ICN Worldwide Dosimetry Division		Fax:(714) 668-3149 	                   		    
ICN Biomedicals, Inc.				E-Mail: sandyfl@earthlink.net 				                           
ICN Plaza, 3300 Hyland Avenue  		E-Mail: sperle@icnpharm.com          	          
Costa Mesa, CA 92626                                      

Personal Website:  http://www.geocities.com/capecanaveral/1205
ICN Worldwide Dosimetry Website: http://www.dosimetry.com

************************************************************************
The RADSAFE Frequently Asked Questions list, archives and subscription
information can be accessed at http://www.ehs.uiuc.edu/~rad/radsafe.html