§ Dr. Cunninghamasked the Secretary of State for the Environment when he will publish details of the proposed new authorisation for radioactive liquid discharges from British Nuclear Fuels plant at Sellafield.
§ 1986. Mr. WaldegraveThe proposed new radioactive discharge authorisation for Sellafield has been published today for consultation. It will set tighter annual, quarterly412W and two-day limits on the overall amounts of radioactivity which may be discharged. It will also, for the first time, set specific limits on individual radionuclides that are of considerable radiological significance or that account for a large proportion of the discharge in activity terms.
Within the limits set, BNFL will continue to be required to use the best practicable means to limit the radioactive content of discharges in order to ensure that the effect on man and the environment is kept as low as reasonably achievable.
This authorisation is the latest stage in a continuing process of limiting radioactive discharges from Sellafield, which are now less than one-sixth of what they were in 1979. The authorisation will be reviewed in two or three years' time and again when BNFL's current investment programme on effluent treatment plant is completed in the early 1990s.