§ Mr. CohenTo ask the Secretary of State for the Environment, Transport and the Regions what assessment he has made of the emission levels from rail-borne flasks carrying nuclear fuel in the United Kingdom; and if he will list the international safety levels set for the transport by rail of nuclear fuels. [76014]
§ Ms Glenda JacksonThe National Radiological Protection Board, working under contract to the Department of the Environment, Transport and the Regions carried out surveys into the radiological impact of the transport of radioactive materials by all modes. In the last survey covering rail transport (Radiation Exposure from the Normal Transport of Radioactive Materials within the United Kingdom, 1991 Review, by R. Gelder, National Radiological Protection Board Report NRPB-R255, ISBN 0 85951 351 3) the scenario of a householder living 100 metres from a marshalling yard where fuel flasks may be held for several hours, was assessed to give rise to a maximum dose of 6 microSievert. The maximum dose to persons living closer (50 metres) to a railway line with passing traffic (where exposure times would be very much shorter) was assessed to be very much lower. For comparison, the average annual dose in the UK owing to natural background radiation is about 2000 microSievert.
The international safety levels for the transport of radioactive materials by rail are in the Regulations concerning the International Carriage of Dangerous Goods by Rail (RID) (ISBN 0–11–552032–5). They require that the radiation level from trains carrying radioactive material during normal operations is limited to a maximum of 2 milliSievert/h at any point on the wagon outer surfaces, or the vertical planes projected from the outer edges of open wagons and to 0.1 milliSievert/h at a distance of 2 metres from those surfaces. The maximum levels for non-fixed contamination on the surface of fuel flasks or rail wagons is 4 Bequerels/cm2 for beta, gamma and low toxicity alpha emitters and 0.4 Bequerels/cm2 for alpha emitters.
My right hon. Friend the Minister for Transport announced a programme of random independent inspections of contamination levels on spent fuel flasks and other packages transporting radioactive materials. These checks were additional to those already made by 667W the operators. The contamination survey report is due to be published shortly. Copies will be available in the House of Commons Library.