§ Dr. Cunninghamasked the Secretary of State for the Environment if he will make a statement about the monitoring of radioactivity on the beaches in the Copeland borough council area of west Cumbria.
§ Mr. Patrick JenkinExtensive monitoring of the beaches between St. Bees and Eskmeals in Cumbria has been carried out by British Nuclear Fuels plc, and independently by my Department and the Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food. For several weeks the frequency with which materials contaminated by radioactivity has been discovered has been quite low and shows a substantial improvement over previous periods following the incident in November. In the last week the beaches have been once more intensively monitored: 14130W items have been found on above 30 kilometres of beach; the great majority being only slightly about the National Radiological Protection Board's criterion of 10mR/hr.
In the light of these recent observations, the authorising departments and NRPB now consider that there is negligible risk from using the beaches. This assessment has been discussed and agreed with the local health authorities and the Sellafield local liaison committee.
The authorising Departments consider, however, that there continues to be a small risk if contaminated objects, particularly plastic, rubber or string, are picked up and retained about the person. The public are therefore advised not to remove such objects from the beach. The most sensitive area is where material has been deposited at the high tide line.
The extended programme of beach monitoring will continue. Contaminated items will be removed as found. Monitoring results since November will be published by the authorising departments in due course and the further results of monitoring will be made available.