§ Mr. HoyleTo ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs for how long after use of a landfill site has been discontinued low-level radioactive waste monitoring is carried out. [157296]
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§ Mr. MorleyResponsibility for regular annual monitoring of radioactivity in the environment around landfill sites in England and Wales rests with the Environment Agency and the Scottish Environment Protection Agency for Scotland.
There is no fixed time after which monitoring for radioactivity around landfill sites will cease to be undertaken once they cease to receive radioactive wastes. Monitoring programmes are kept under review and any decision to discontinue monitoring is only made after careful evaluation. Evaluation takes into account the inventory of waste disposed to a site, including the radionuclides and quantities, the characteristics of the disposal site, and whether monitoring results have shown that radioactivity is consistently low or not detectable.
The results of radioactivity monitoring carried out around landfill sites are reported annually. Results for 2002 are presented in Radioactivity in Food and the Environment Report (RIFE—8), which is available in the House of Commons Library.