§ Mrs. Kellett-Bowmanasked the Secretary of State for the Environment, in view of the fact that caesium isotopes currently contribute more radiation to the public than any other from Windscale, if he will seek to put an immediate specific limit on the amounts of caesium 134 and 137 that the plant may put out.
§ Mr. Shore,pursuant to his reply—[Official Report, 9th June 1978; Vol. 951, c. 255]—gave the following answer:
I and my right hon. Friend the Minister for Agriculture, Fisheries and Food are considering what radionuclides should be specified in new limits on emissions from the Windscale plant and we shall in due course be issuing a new authorisation under the Radioactive Substances Act 1960. The authorisation will specify limits for all the most significant radionuclides, including caesium.
Meanwhile, British Nuclear Fuels Limited is designing a plant to reduce the discharges of caesium and other radionuclides from the Windscale works, and has been requested to submit the design to the authorising Departments for examination.
§ Mrs. Kellett-Bowmanasked the Secretary of State for the Environment if, in order to ensure compliance with any recommendations which the new inspectorate proposed under recommendation 6 of the Parker Report may make, he will seek to give the inspectorate the power to restrict plant working or enforce temporary closure if permitted limits are 306W exceeded, until improvements have been made to brine the emissions within the limits.
§ Mr. Shore,pursuant to his reply—[Official Report, 9th June 1978; Vol. 951, c. 255–56]—gave the following answer:
As I told the House on 18th May, the Government have not yet reached a decision on the unified pollution inspectorate for England and Wales recommended in the Fifth Report of the Royal Commission on Environmental Pollution.
Meanwhile, the Radiochemical Inspectorate of my Department will, in collaboration with the Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food, be responsible to Ministers for carrying out Mr. Justice Parker's recommendations that an overall view be taken of the level of discharges to be authorised to all sectors of the environment, and each authorisation should take account of the advice of the National Radiological Protection Board on the total radiation dose from all sources of discharge.
The Government have already indicated, in their response to the Royal Commission's Sixth Report, that they are considering whether further statutory powers are needed to enable the Secrearies of State for the Environment, Scotland and Wales to carry out their new responsibilties for radioactive waste management.