Re: British Radioactive Pollution

[Muckerheide <muckerheide@mediaone.net>]

GACMail98@aol.com wrote:

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

It would be appreciated if anyone would forward to the list any statement on
this dishonesty, on the measurements, and/or on discharges.

Thanks.

Regards, Jim Muckerheide
muckerheide@mediaone.net
========================

> 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."
> 
> ------------------------------------------------------------------------
> 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.
> ------------------------------------------------------------------------
> 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.