Radioactive Waste Secretly Dumped

Government Confirms Radioactive Dumping in Irish Sea

A spokesman for the Scottish Office confirmed a newspaper report that low to intermediate-level contaminated waste was dumped in Beaufort Dyke in the Irish Sea in the 1950s.

The waste was from private companies and amounted to up to two tonnes of material in heavy metal drums encased in concrete.

"Ministers have recently been made aware that small quantities of low to intermediate contaminated waste were dumped in the 1950s," said the Government spokesman. "Prior to the discovery, ministers were not aware it had been dumped."

The spokesman said officials were trying to establish more details before a full announcement was made. Monitoring was under way, but he stressed that radiation levels were so insignificant they could not be measured.

"After successive government denials, then revelations cancelling out previous denials, very few people have much trust in what successive government spokesmen are saying because the story changes every year.

"We need a full inquiry into just what is there and what can be done to get it out or to render it safe." Mr Morgan noted that the area was a busy shipping lane, was important to the economy of south west Scotland, and claimed the revelations about Beaufort Dyke were bad for tourism.

"There is probably not much danger of a giant explosion happening all at once but no-one's quite sure ... We have this cocktail ... it's a lethal combination in the long term," he added. Meanwhile the new Irish government is seeking more details about the dumping. Michael Woods, Marine and Natural Resources Minister has highlighted his "deep concern" on the issue.

He noted that there had been previous assurances from the British government that there had been no dumping of waste, and added that he would be raising the affair with the authorities in London.

Friends of the Earth spokesman Rachel Weston said, "The important thing is that statements made to Parliament since 1984 are all false. What seems to be happening is that a lot of the decisions made during the last administration were based on falsehoods. We need to deal with this now or we will have a crisis on our hands."

John Large, an independent nuclear consulting engineer, added "This is a very serious issue. The nuclear industry describes waste as being low, intermediate or high level. But these terms apply to waste stored in controlled conditions on land. As soon as you unzip that can underwater it doesn't matter. It is like a leaking teabag and the uptake would be a slow and gradual process. Here you have the risk of radioactivity being taken up by plankton and then by fish where it ultimately ends up on the landing slab at Grimsby."

Beafort Dyke, close to busy shipping lanes between Scotland and Ireland, has been used as a munitions dump by the Ministry of Defence since the 1920s. It came to prominence in recent years when explosives began to wash up on Scottish beaches after a gas pipeline was laid along the seabed.