HC Deb 30 November 1998 vol 321 cc51-2W
Mr. Baker

To ask the Secretary of State for the Environment, Transport and the Regions what assessment he has made of the recent Greenpeace report on the impact on the United Kingdom of emissions from French nuclear reactors; and if he will make a statement. [60942]

Mr. Meale

My Department has not received a copy of the report referred to, but it is understood from the Greenpeace press release that it relates to computer modelling of the dispersal of aerial discharges from the La Hague nuclear reprocessing plant.

I refer the hon. Member to the answer I gave to my hon. Friend the Member for Great Grimsby (Mr. Mitchell) on Thursday 17 November 1998, Official Report, columns 487–88.

Mr. Baker

To ask the Secretary of State for the Environment, Transport and the Regions what percentage of measurable radioactivity recorded in southern England is attributable to emissions from French nuclear reactors. [60943]

Mr. Meale

Measured levels of radioactivity in air, rainwater, lakes and reservoirs, and radiation levels over beaches in southern England are indistinguishable from levels of both natural origin and from atmospheric testing of nuclear weapons and the Chernobyl reactor accident. The low levels of man-made radioactivity found in marine foodstuffs and sediments sampled from the coastal waters of Southern England cannot be attributed to particular sources.