§ Mrs. Renée Shortasked the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food how much plutonium is allowed to be dumped into the sea from Windscale; and what are the comparable discharges allowed by the United States of America, Japan and West Germany.
§ Mr. Buchanan-SmithPlutonium is not specifically identified in the discharge authorisation for Windscale. All alpha discharges to the sea are, however, subject to a maximum discharge level of 2,000 curies of alpha activity in any consecutive period of three months with an overall limit of 6,000 curies in any one period of 12 consecutive calendar months. This maximum level is set to take account also of discharges of plutonium-241, a beta emitter which decays fairly quickly to an alpha emitting radionuclide. Within these limits discharges must also be kept as low as is reasonably achievable. Details of actual discharges of plutonium from Windscale are included in the annual surveys of radioactive discharges in Great Britain, copies of which are placed in the Library of the House.
I do not have authoritative information about authorised levels of discharges in other countries.