HC Deb 27 July 1988 vol 138 cc247-8W
Dr. Thomas

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport why information on the incidence of radioactive materials lost in transit over the period 1979 to 1982 is not kept.

Mr. Peter Bottomley

It was not kept centrally.

It has been since 1982.

Dr. Thomas

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport if he will list by date, radioactive content, quantity and transport route each of the six occasions on which medical isotopes have been lost in transit from 1983 to the present.

Mr. Peter Bottomley

The radiological consequence of these six losses of medical and industrial isotopes since 1983 is considered to have been minimal. The details are as follows1987, an americium-241 source of 11 GBq was lost possibly from a bonded warehouse near Heathrow airport. 1987, a carbon-14 source of 12 MBq was reported by Lufthansa German Airlines to have gone astray at Heathrow airport. 1986, an iodine-125 source of 2.25 GBq was reported by Lufthansa German Airlines to have been lost at its cargo terminal at Heathrow airport. 1985, an iron-55 source of 200 kBQ went missing from a scientific instrument despatched from Clandon Scientific Limited, Aldershot, to its parent company in Finland via Heathrow airport. 1985, five sources were stolen from a locked car in a car park in Lancaster. The items stolen were mainly static eliminators comprising:

  1. (i) Model 703 static meter containing 7400 MBq of tritium,
  2. (ii) Model 210 static eliminator containing 880 MBq of polonium-210.
  3. (iii) Model 315 static eliminator containing 440 MBq of polonium-210.
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  4. (iv) Model 205 spot eliminator containing 370 MBq of polonium-210.
  5. (v) Model 902F ionising air gun containing 370 MBq of polonium-210.
1984, a consignment of four industrial sources was washed overboard from an offshore support vessel going from Aberdeen to Dundee Kings North drilling rig. The details of the sources lost were:
  1. (i) An americium-241/beryllium source of 590 GBq.
  2. (ii) An americium-241/beryllium source of 18.5 GBq.
  3. (iii) Two caesium-137 sources each of 55.5 GBq.

Dr. Thomas

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport if any nuclear materials designated by(a) his Department or (b) the Environment Directorate General of the European Commission, as nuclear waste are transported within United Kingdom national boundaries by air.

Mr. Peter Bottomley

No.