§ Mr. WigleyTo ask the Secretary of State for the Environment, Transport and the Regions if he will make a statement on the disposal of(a) nuclear waste and (b) toxic waste from Windscale/Sellafield, and on recent reports that such materials were tipped into the Irish Sea off Holyhead. [59697]
§ Mr. MealeI am aware of recent reports suggesting that toxic and radioactive waste from Windscale were dumped in the Irish Sea off Holyhead in the 1950s and early 1960s. Similar reports appeared in the press last year but extensive searches by Government Departments of archive records relating to sea dumping of radioactive waste did not identify any evidence to support them. However, as part of that research, the Ministry of Defence confirmed that radioactive miss-distance indicators were disposed of in Holyhead Deep in 1974. Details of those disposals were announced by my right hon. Friend the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food, last year.
An independent assessment of the disposals, conducted by the National Radiological Protection Board, confirmed that they were of no radiological significance. A copy of the NRPB report on the disposals was placed in the Library of the House in November 1997. The Ministry of Defence is still undertaking record searches for other previously unreported sea dumpings of radioactive waste and will be announcing the results of that research in due course.
Some reports have claimed that the waste in question arose from the Windscale Pile 1 fire which occurred in 1957. I understand that the material resulting from the fire was, in fact, retained on site and either processed, stored or disposed of there. The Government are not aware of any of the material being sent for disposal at sea, although it is possible that very small quantities of fuel and isotopes could have been dispatched to the United Kingdom Atomic Energy Authority site at Harwell for analysis, and the residues disposed of by authorised sea disposal routes.