from Sunday Herald, 26 November 2006
Radioactive particles from the Dounreay nuclear plant will keep polluting public beaches for decades to come, and the environment will never be completely cleaned up.
These are the conclusions of the latest expert study of the hundreds of thousands of fragments of nuclear fuel known to have leaked into the sea from the Caithness plant since the 1950s.
The revelations have sparked anger from environmentalists, who say that nuclear power has left Scotland with a "terrible legacy". Dounreay's operator, the UK Atomic Energy Authority (UKAEA), admits that the behaviour that led to the leaks was "just not acceptable".
The new study is by the Dounreay Particles Advisory Group (DPAG), an independent committee of nine radiation specialists set up in 2000 by the Scottish Environment Protection Agency (Sepa) and the UKAEA. It provides the most detailed and definitive account to date of the widespread contamination caused by the particles.
"It is expected that particles will continue to be washed onto local beaches for some decades," it says. "The extent and nature of the contamination means that it is impractical to aim to return the environment to a pristine condition."
Trying to retrieve all the particles could create more problems that it solves, the report warns. "Disturbance of the seabed could cause mobilisation and fragmentation of large particles before they could be retrieved, increasing the likelihood of particles reaching beaches to cause potential exposure of the public."
Nevertheless the report urges that "serious consideration be given to the targeted removal of significant particles in the marine environment". As a result the UKAEA is seeking bids for robots that could retrieve the particles from the seabed.
The DPAG report estimates that there are about 1,000 "significant" particles in the sea, mostly within half a kilometre of Dounreay's old waste diffuser. The most radioactive particle found so far "could have had life-threatening consequences if it had been ingested".
The report calls for the foreshore adjacent to Dounreay to be closed to the public as the contamination there could be dangerous. Monitoring of other beaches should be stepped up, it recommends.
Sandside, a public beach across the bay from Dounreay where 74 radioactive particles have been found, should be comprehensively monitored every two weeks. Eight other local beaches should also be regularly checked - Scrabster, Crosskirk. Brims Ness, Thurso, Melvich, Murkle, Peedie and Dunnet.
Fishing within a two-kilometre radius of Dounreay's waste pipe has been banned since 1997. The UKAEA is also facing prosecution for the pollution, as Sepa has submitted a report to the Procurator Fiscal.
The DPAG report reveals that one source of the particles was a series of hitherto unknown spontaneous fires in a fuel reprocessing plant between 1969 and 1979, including a major blaze on 30 May 1972.
Other sources were drains, sea tanks and an underwater diffusion chamber. The infamous Dounreay shaft, which suffered a "violent explosion" in 1977, has also contributed to the leakages.
As a result "potentially up to several hundred thousand particles" have been discharged into the sea since 1959. This "has been an understandable cause for concern", says the DPAG report.
"This report reveals the horror that was Dounreay and people will be shocked to learn that for the foreseeable future radiation will be washed up on Scottish beaches," says Duncan McLaren, chief executive of Friends of the Earth Scotland.
"This is the terrible legacy that Scotland's failed nuclear experiment has left us with, and it should remind us why we should not countenance a new generation of nuclear power stations."
The UKAEA accepts that safety standards in the past were poor. "The particles are a legacy of practices that date from the 1950s which we regard today as just not acceptable," says the authority's spokesman, Colin Punler.
"It's never going to be possible to retrieve every particle," he adds. "But we need to make sure that we reduce the risk to the minimum by going after the largest particles which pose the greatest hazard."
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