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Re: British Radioactive Pollution
OK, last message (poster just finished for Obninsk...) before
I leave: The measurements - the original report is probably
from Norway. I assume that the measurements are OK but the
selection and context may not reflect the original report.
It seems to be the usual type of mass medial fallout here:
Only Bq or half-life data but no dose context (we call this
"becquerel gymnastics" here).
My own ideas again..., bjorn_cedervall@hotmail.com
Stockholm, Sweden
---------------------------------------------------------
>Date: Fri, 19 Jun 1998 19:35:51 -0500 (CDT)
>Reply-To: radsafe@romulus.ehs.uiuc.edu
>From: Muckerheide <muckerheide@mediaone.net>
>To: Multiple recipients of list <radsafe@romulus.ehs.uiuc.edu>
>Subject: Re: British Radioactive Pollution
>
>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.
>
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