§ Mr. William RossTo ask the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland if he will now publish and place in the Library a map showing the changing areas of land in Northern Ireland to which the restrictions consequent upon the Chernobyl incident apply, indicating the dates of the different changes and the levels of radioactivity at each such date in those areas at the latest available date; and when he estimates all the remaining restrictions will be removed. [9515]
§ Mr. AncramOn each occasion that derestriction takes place a press release is issued along with a small scale map outlining the changes per derestriction. Arrangements have been made to have copies of these maps placed in the Library. Derestriction is based on monitoring levels of radioactivity in live sheep and can be considered only where the levels are found to be below the action level of 1,000 becquerels per kilogramme.
Although the continued downward trend is encouraging, it is not possible to indicate at this time when all restrictions may be removed.
§ Mr. RossTo ask the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland if he will publish and place in the Library a map showing the area and land use, of the areas of land in Northern Ireland to which the restrictions consequent upon the Chernobyl incident have applied; and what386W uptake of radioactive material by trees in such areas there has been. [9516]
§ Mr. AncramOn each occasion that derestriction takes place a press release is issued, along with a small-scale map outlining the changes. Arrangements have been made to have copies of these maps placed in the Library. These maps do not indicate the land use, which in the main is rough grazing with some forestry. There is no data available on uptake of radioactive material by trees.