§ Mr. Campbell-Savoursasked the Secretary of State for the Environment if he will list those contracts undertaken or being undertaken by the Institute of Terrestrial Ecology on behalf of Her Majesty's Government, involving monitoring of radioactivity in the environment; in what areas such investigations are taking place; and when he intends to publish those results.
§ Mrs. RumboldThe following contracts have been placed with the Institute of Terrestrial Ecology in recent years:
By the Department of the Environment
- Radionuclides in Terrestrial Ecosystems.
- Concentration and Spatial Distribution of Radionuclides in
90 - Grazed and Ungrazed Saltmarshes.
- Inland Transfer of Radionuclides by Birds feeding in the Estuaries and Saltmarshes at. Ravenglass.
- Radionuclides in contrasting types of Coastal Pastures and taken up by individual plant species in West Cumbria.
- Incorporation of Radionuclides by Sheep grazing on an Estuarine Saltmarsh.
- Procedure developed and used for the measurement of Alpha and Gamma Emitters in Environmental Materials.
- The Distribution and Dynamics of Radionuclides in the Terrestrial Environment.
- Radionuclides in Bird Tissues, their Foods and Feeding Areas near Ravenglass.
- Sheep Grazing Studies.
- Radiochemical Technical Development Studies.
- The results of the first six projects listed above have already been published: The results of the remaining projects will be published in the course of the next two years as soon as the work has been completed.
By the Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food
- Radionuclides distribution within a grazed meadow.
- Analysis of environmental data (1979–1981.
- Statistical Analysis of West Cumbria milk data.
- Cumbria sheep feeding studies.
- The results of the first three projects listed above have already been published: The results of the remaining project will be published as soon as the work is completed in 1986.
§ Mr. Campbell-Savoursasked the Secretary of State for the Environment which radioactive isotopes or elements have been detected in or around the Irish Sea coast of Cumbria in each year since 1979.
§ Mrs. RumboldI am informed that radionuclides of the following elements have been detected as a result of routine monitoring undertaken between 1980 and 1983 (complete information is not yet available for 1984)
Americium, Antimony, Argon, Caesium, Carbon, Cerium, Cobalt, Curium, Europium, Hydrogen (as Tritium), Iodine, Krypton, Manganese, Niobium, Plutonium, Ruthenium, Silver, Strontium, Technetium, Zinc and Zirconium.