UK: Campaign blocks recycling on radioactive waste
(526.5145) LLRC - A new European Directive (Council Directive 96/29/Euratom) on radioactive protection allows deregulation of radioactively cotaminated materials from nuclear power stations, bomb factories and the like, so long as they aren't too 'hot' -that is, if the radioactivity is below certain thres-holds called 'Clearance levels'. These are levels which pro-nuclear organisations like the European Atomic Energy agency Euratom and the IAEA regard as safe. The Directive specifically allows 'cleared' materials - and the radioactivity they contain - to go for unregulated recycling, reuse or disposal.
This, as officials admit, means inevitable contamination of consumer goods, fertilisers and food, road surfacing materials, playgrounds, building materials, landfill dumps, waste incine-rators with no tracking or monitoring. To some extent this already happens, but the present UK treshold is strict (more strict, in fact, than many other Euratom countries). The nu-clear industry expected adoption of new, higher tresholds which would give them greater freedom to sell or dump contaminated materials as clean'.
| The UK clearance level of 400 Bq/kg is very strict compared to other countries. The Euratom directive 96/29 has several clearance levels for different isotopes but the most strict level is 1000 Bq/kg (for tritium it is even 10,000 Bq/kg). National governments can adopt (or keep) own legislation if those are not less strict as the Euratom Directive norm. In fact, because some countries have more lax clearance levels, adoption of the Euratom Directive is in fact an improvement. This is exactly the reason why the campaign against the Euratom Directive 96/29 was not really an international campaign in the European Union (WISE Amsterdam). |
The Department of the Environment, Transport and the Regions (DETR) has now issued the final consultation document (public consultation on the DETRT proposals ends on March 20) on revising the Radioactive Substances Act 1993 to bring it into line with the Euratom Directive. We are pleased to announce that the DETR is leaving the threshold unchanged at 400 Becquerels per kilogram. Technically, this is known as the Substances of Low Activity Exemption Order (SoLA).
But.. We are still worried about some aspects and shall have to go on lobbying.
Clearance: Millions of tons of contaminated materials are waiting to be decommissioned from redundant reactors and factories. The consultation document proposes that the SoLA value of 400 Bq/kg ..."could be used for unconditional clearance of large volumes of material" (para.12). This is not acceptable. The 400 Bq/kg level was set decades before nuclear decommissio-ning became a growth industry. The government does not have a clue how much waste will be below the SoLA value, nor how much radioactivity it will contain. We cannot accept 'clearance' on this basis, because the amount of radioactivity it will release into the environment is potential unlimited. Dilution: The industry is under financial pressure to deregulate as much radioactivity as possible. There will be a strong temptation (some have already given in to it) to mix 'hot' materials with 'clean' in order to comply with clearance thresholds. There must be specific legal measures to prevent radio-activity being diluted prior to clearance.
Source and Contact: Low Level Radiation Campaign, Amondale, Spa Road, Llandrindod Wells, Powys LD1 5EY, UK
Tel: +44-1597-824771
Email: bramhall@llrc.org
WWW: www.llrc.org