HC Deb 14 June 1988 vol 135 cc140-1W
Dr. Thomas

To ask the Secretary of State for the Environment what proportion of the radioactive wastes by radioactivity content, currently buried at the Drigg dump site near Sellafield, arises from contracts made with foreign companies or Governments.

Mr. Moynihan

Less than half of 1 per cent. of the radioactive waste currently disposed of at the Drigg site is estimated to have arisen from contracts made with foreign companies or Governments.

Dr. Thomas

To ask the Secretary of State for the Environment, pursuant to his replies to the hon. Mernber for Meirionnydd Nant Conway,Official Report, 20 May, columns 603–4, what nuclear materials in what bequerel measurements, respectively, account for the 470 terabe-querel total disposed of at the Drigg dump near Sellafield.

Mr. Moynihan

The principal radionuclides comprising the 470 terabecquerels total activity currently disposed of at the Drigg disposal site are as follows:

Radionuclide Total activity in TBq at 1 January 1986
Tritium 410
Carbon 14 2.6
Strontium 90 1.5
Technetium 99 9.7 × 10-5
Iodine 129 l.9 × 10-7
Caesium 137 1.8
Radium 226 10 -2
Thorium 232 3.4
Uranium 234 17
Uranium 235 0.56
Uranium 238 18
Neptunium 237 8 × 10-2
Plutonium 238 1.8 × 10-2
Plutonium 239 1
Plutonium 240 0.6
Plutonium 241 11
Americium 241 1.1