Nuclear reprocessing raises radioactive gas levels over Ireland

Levels of a radioactive gas continue to rise over Ireland because of discharges from nuclear reprocessing facilities in Britain and France, according to figures issued by the Radiological Protection Institute of Ireland.

Concentrations of krypton-85 have risen since measurements by the RPII began in 1993, according to the institute's report, Environmental Radioactivity Surveillance Programme 1997 and 1998. It details levels of manmade radioactivity in air, rainwater, drinking water and milk.

Measurements of drinking water and milk were said by the institute to be within the WHO limits, although it noted "considerable variability" in radioactivity levels in water. It identified four water samples which exceeded the WHO "reference levels" but all Irish water sources tested remained "in compliance with the WHO guidelines".

At the Fianna Fail Ardfheis, the Taoiseach made a trenchant call for the closure of Sellafield. The Attorney General, Mr Michael McDowell, has been asked to look again at any international legal move that could be made by Ireland to win the closure of Sellafield.

The Government should "speed up the process and take this evidence on board that Sellafield is an increasing hazard to the Irish people", according to Mr Trevor Sargent of the Green Party, who said that krypton-85 levels were bound to increase given new facilities operating at Sellafield. "If they are allowed to continue operating THORP then krypton-85 will continue to increase."

Most of the krypton-85 gas detected by the RPII's air monitoring station in Clonskea, Dublin, comes from reprocessing activities at Sellafield, at La Hague in France and in Russia, the institute's deputy chief executive, Mr John Cunningham, said.

The twice-monthly measurements showed radioactivity that could well be attributable to Sellafield, he said, but it was not possible to confirm this link because krypton-85 looked the same whatever its source.

"We will be looking very carefully at the discharges from Sellafield, not just kyrpton-85 but all discharges," Mr Cunningham said.

The Government should demand that Ireland be given a right "as an absolute minimum" to establish a monitoring facility adjacent to the Sellafield complex in Cumbria, according to Mr Arthur Morgan, a Sinn Fein councillor from Co Louth.

Pending the plant's closure the Department of the Environment and the RPII "should be demanding this of right so we can get some kind of independent verification of the levels at Sellafield", he added.

Sellafield has a British licence to discharge krypton-85, which builds up as a result of reprocessing, Mr Alan Hughes of British Nuclear Fuels Ltd, said.

"We don't yet have a means of holding or abating it at the moment. There is no commercially available system we can put in that will take [krypton-85] from the discharges," he added.

Krypton is a "nobel" gas, so named because it does not easily react with other chemicals, in common with other nobel gases such as argon or neon. For this reason it tends to remain in the atmosphere for a long time. The institute's report noted a "gradual build-up" of the gas in the atmosphere of the northern hemisphere.

The report said the main radioactive dose of krypton-85 was delivered via the skin and detailed the resultant increase in radiation dose the gas delivered. "However, none of the increases observed were of significance from a radiological safety point of view," it stated.