Archived press release

Foe urges Government to cut radioactive discharges

18 July 1997

Friends of the Earth today condemned British Nuclear Fuels' [BNFL] announcement [1]that it is continuing to apply for increased discharges of radioactive iodine from its Sellafield site. The application directly contradicts Ministerial demands set out by the previous Government, that BNFL must cut its radioactive discharges [2].

BNFL today confirmed that it is continuing to seek permission [3] to increase discharges of iodine-129 from the site. Iodine-129 has a half life of over ten million years and is carried through the food chain into milk. As a result, these discharges present a direct cancer risk to children. The Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food [MAFF] has expressed deep concern over the methods used by BNFL to calculate this cancer risk. In April of this year,MAFF wrote to the Environment Agency challenging BNFL's risk estimates for iodine because BNFL may have significantly underestimated the cancer risk presented by these discharges [4]. FOE welcomes BNFL's retreat on the tritium discharges, but they must now follow suit with iodine.

Dr Rachel Western, Nuclear Campaigner at Friends of the Earth, said:
"BNFL must cut their discharges. The radioactivity that they release to the environment will present a cancer risk for millions of years into the future. The Government must act to stop this careless and irresponsible pollution.

NOTES TO EDITORS:
[1] BNFL Press Release, 18 July 1997. BNFL says that it is continuing to apply for an increase in discharges of iodine-129 from the site - albeit a slightly lower application than it originally submitted last year. The application to increase tritium discharges has been withdrawn.

[2] In December 1993, John Gummer, the Secretary of State for the Environment amended BNFL's discharge license demanding that they come up with a "strategy for achieving a continuing reduction in discharges".

[3] In November 1996 BNFL applied to the Environment Agency for permission to increase discharges of radioactivity from the Sellafield site.

[4] BNFL consultants recalculated the cancer risk presented by iodine discharges. This recalculation contravenes established methodology and was strongly disputed by MAFF.

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