response to Hinkley Point C estuary sediment assessed as safe NRW 27 March
W Mail Letters 2 April 2018
Reject waste dumping in Severn Estuary
The
latest test samples do not show the radioactivity levels are “safe”, as NRW
asserts (Western Mail, March 28),
only that they are within the “de minimis” level for dumping at sea under the
London Convention.
A lot of
difference! Governments have long agreed that no radioactivity can be called
“safe”.
The real
issue is that the authorities have ignored the obvious – that the Severn
Estuary is not the sea. The Convention document (IAEA-TECDOC-1375) says
“disposal at sea is assumed to occur in relatively shallow well-mixed near
coastal waters. The disposal is assumed to take place a few kilometres off the
coast so the actual shape of the coastline does not influence the dispersion
significantly.”
What are
the implications in the Severn Estuary waters that slosh up and down for months
before reaching the sea? First, the marine life absorbs the radioactive
pollutants and concentrates them many times over in the food chain, into fish
and seabirds.
Second,
the pollutants concentrated in surface biofilms contaminate sea spray from
bursting bubbles, which dry up as microparticles carried inland on breezes. The
expert you cite, Tim Deere-Jones, gave evidence on this to the Petitions
Committee, but the NRW and EdF representatives stick with the “de minimus”
criterion. It was a dialogue of the deaf.
Our Vale
of Glamorgan council objected to the dumping – it’s not “disposal” as NRW’s
John Wheadon claims, but dispersal of the excavated mud in the Severn Estuary’s
strong currents – but the council was given the false “de minimis” story. We in
Friends of the Earth continue to demand they reject it.
Max Wallis, Friends of the Earth Barry&Vale
 |
| The dumping area is a mile offshore from Penarth beach which is destined to probably receive the biggest deposit of mud |
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