Greenpeace (Oops)

[lfiske@shepmill.com (Larry Fiske)]

The following artical was posted to NucNet news:

Greenpeace Scores Own Goal

When, according to Greenpeace, is low-level radioactive material "absolutely
no health risk"? The answer, of course, is when that material is stored in
the back yard of Greenpeace's London headquarters, next to a public footpath
and 100 metres from a children's park.

Greenpeace had been storing the sand from the Cumbrian coastline as part of
a publicity stunt to support its call for the immediate closure of BNFL's
Sellafield operations because of "dangerously contaminated public beaches". 

However, the revelation in yesterday's British Sunday newspapers that
contaminated material, sealed in plastic bags inside metal drums, was being
stored in the centre of London, caught Greenpeace in a trap. If the sand
from Sellafield's beaches was in anyway harmful, then storage would have to
be authorised under the Radioactive Substances Act (RASA). 

Greenpeace which has no such authorisation would have been accused of
committing a serious offence, carrying an unlimited fine or up to six months
in jail. 

Threatened with an embarrassing site inspection to ascertain the truth,
Greenpeace admitted the material was harmless. BNFL commented: "At last
Greenpeace are saying what we have been saying for years - that the
discharges at Sellafield pose no risk to public health." 

Greenpeace's Chief Press Officer, Adam Woolf, said today (Monday) that the
material would not be classified under the Act as radioactive waste. However
he continued to imply Sellafield's beaches were dangerous. 

A spokeswoman for the government's Environment Agency, responsible for
issuing authorisations under the RASA and policing any breaches, told
NucNet: "If the substance is found to be harmless and outside of the remit
of the Radioactive Substances Act, then no offence has been committed. If
that is the case, it would also prove that the sand on the public beaches at
Sellafield poses no risk to public health and that the call to close
Sellafield is a bit of nonsense".


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Source: Various 
Editor / contact: Paul Seaman


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