Water quality drive at Dounreay could be abandoned

A water quality drive at Dounreay in Scotland - the site of a nuclear disaster in the 1970s - could be abandoned after an environmental watchdog claimed the cleanup effort could do more harm than good.

According to the Scottish Environment Protection Agency (Sepa), the original pledge to remove all radioactive material from the seabed - which was made in 1998 - may not be achievable. And the organisation's board agrees.

In an official statement that essentially abandons the 1998 water quality pledge, Sepa said: "It is now widely accepted that a literal return to a pristine condition is a far from simple or even achievable concept."

Some 2,300 radioactive particles have been removed from the seabed since operations began and in the latest sweep, Dounreay Site Restoration Limited, which is in charge of the cleanup operation, claimed that one in ten of the particles tested posed a significant health risk.

Recently, scientists carrying out soil monitoring at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear exclusion zone claimed that soil quality near to the plant has declined markedly.

Posted by Lauren Steadman