A brief reference to raised levels of radioactivity in some Seascale road drains in the recently published Radioactivity in Food and the Environmernt Report for 2010 (RIFE 16) will rightly be ruffling feathers at Sellafield and with the Regulators. For some road drains located on the main approach road to the village centre (Drigg Road) have shown a significant rise in levels of Caesium-137 (Cs-137) and Americium 241 (Am-241) in 2010 compared to previous years.
In 1988, following the cull of an estimated 2000 feral pigeons at Seascale that were found to be highly contaminated after roosting in Sellafield buildings overnight, radioactivity in the sediment of 18 Seascale road drains was assessed by Copeland Borough Council and the National Radiological Board. Since the cull and the wholescale removal of gardens and driveways to reduce contamination levels, subsequent annual reassurance monitoring of sediment in drains has been carried out by the Environment Agency and, as reported in successive RIFE reports, has shown a decline and levelling off of radioactivity levels – until last year.
For 2010, RIFE 16 reports that in one drain on the Drigg Road (ref SS 233), levels of Cs-137 have risen from 310 Becquerels per kilogram (Bq/kg) in 2009 to 1800 Bq/kg, and an increase in Am-241 from 31 Bq/kg to 130 Bq/kg. Elevated levels of Strontium 90 (Sr-90) and plutonium were also present in the drain sediment – with a second drain on the Drigg Road (ref SS 204) also showing raised concentrations of radioactivity.
A CORE spokesperson has commented that an urgent explanation of this unprecedented hike in radioactive concentrations is required from Sellafield and the Environment Agency. Until then, there can be little public reassurance on the sudden appearance of these high levels being found in Seascale some 13 years after the effects of the Seascale pigeon saga were supposed to have been remediated.
Put in context, the 2010 levels of Cs-137 in drain SS233 are some 500% higher than those reported in RIFE 16 for river estuary sediment around Ravenglass – an area known to be heavily contaminated by decades of Sellafield’s reprocessing discharges.