British Radioactive Pollution

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BRITISH RADIOACTIVE POLLUTION CONTAMINATES NORDIC COASTS; GREENPEACE 
CALLS FOR END TO SELLAFIELD DISCHARGES 
(http://www.greenpeace.org/pressreleases/nucreprocess/1998jun16.html)

16 June 1998

Amsterdam -- Greenpeace today released new data documenting soaring increases
in radioactive contamination of the Danish, Norwegian and Swedish coasts from
the UK's Sellafield plutonium factories. 

Greenpeace has warned that unless Nordic governments take decisive action,
levels of radioactive pollution will skyrocket as the UK government is poised
to grant new authorisations permitting the discharge of thirty billion litres
of nuclear waste from Sellafield over next decade. 

The new data is based on seaweed samples collected by Greenpeace on the coasts
of Sweden, Norway and Denmark. The seaweed was analysed by the University of
Southampton (UK) for contamination by Technetium-99 - a radioactive isotope
released by plutonium reprocessing at the UK's Sellafield site. Tc-99, with a
half-life of 213,000 years, remains in the environment effectively forever. 

Levels of Tc-99 contamination in Norwegian seaweed were found to be as high as
465 Bq/Kg, some 15 times levels found at the beginning of the 1990s. This
level is 3.75 times the Tc-99 contamination level found by the Norwegian
Radiation Protection Authority in sampling in January of 1998. Tc-99 levels of
182Bq/kg and 53Bq/Kg were found in Swedish and Danish seaweed respectively.
These levels are greatly elevated over those which would have been found
earlier in the decade but no current data for Tc-99 contamination has been
produced by Danish nor Swedish authorities. 

"This radioactive tide should make alarm bells ring throughout the Nordic
countries," said Dima Litvinov of Greenpeace. "If we are to stop the
radioactive pollution from dangerously contaminating our seafood and marine
resources, the governments of the region must take decisive action. All
efforts must be taken to ban reprocessing discharges and stop Britain and
France from authorising additional discharges of nuclear waste into the sea
and air." 

The Tc-99 contamination stems from 900% and 1100% increases granted by the UK
government for Sellafield's radioactive liquid and gaseous discharges in
preparation for the opening and operation of Sellafield's new THORP plutonium
reprocessing plant and the EARP waste processing facility in 1994. Under the
new authorisations, Sellafield discharges some 9 million litres of radioactive
waste into the Irish Sea daily. Nuclear waste pumped by Sellafield into the
Irish Sea arrives in Nordic waters in less than 2.5 years. 

In February, the Nordic Council of Environment Ministers called on the UK to
stop the discharges. Instead British Nuclear Fuels (BNFL), which operates
Sellafield, is seeking a new discharge authorisation. If granted by the UK
Government, the new authorisation would permit BNFL to pump some 30 billion
litres of nuclear waste into the Irish Sea during the next ten years.
Discharges of radioactive gases would also increase. 

Nordic waters are also contaminated by radioactive discharges from the French
La Hague reprocessing plants and the Dounreay reprocessing plant on the tip of
Scotland. The French state-controlled plutonium factories at La Hague pump
some 230 million litres of nuclear waste into the Atlantic each year -
pollution which reaches Nordic waters in as little as 15 months. The French
government is expected to consider and grant new discharge authorisations for
La Hague later this year. While reprocessing at Dounreay had ground to a halt
following a string of incidents and accidents, the British government has just
announced that some reprocessing activities at Dounreay will resume. Pollution
from Sellafield, La Hague and Dounreay account for more than 97% of the
radioactive discharges from sites throughout the North East Atlantic. 

A Ministerial Meeting of the OSPAR Commission in Portugal in July, will be
considering a ban on discharges from the Sellafield, Dounreay and La Hague
reprocessing plants(1). The OSPAR Commission, which includes Denmark, Norway,
Sweden and 12 other governments (including the UK and France) from the North-
East Atlantic region, is charged with preventing radioactive and toxic
pollution of the marine environment. 

Greenpeace is calling on all the Nordic Governments to take a lead in agreeing
an immediate ban on radioactive discharges at the OSPAR meeting. 

"As long as Sellafield, La Hague and Dounreay are allowed to pour nuclear
waste into the sea, Nordic peoples must live with the fear of a perpetual
Chernobyl emanating from Britain and France," said Litvinov, "This historic
opportunity to ban the discharges must not be squandered." 

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FOR FURTHER INFORMATION PLEASE CONTACT:
Dima Litvinov (Greenpeace Sweden) (m) +46-70657 6586, 46-87027070 
Damon Moglen (Greenpeace International) +31 1653 433 452, +44 1946 824 
321 Mike Townsley (Greenpeace International) +44 411 607 597. 
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Footnotes: 

(1) The Ministerial Meeting will also decide whether: to ban the dumping of
decommissioned offshore oil and gas installations at sea; and to phase out, by
2020, the disposal of toxic wastes into air and water.