PIGEONS BECOME NUCLEAR WASTE AT BNFL PLUTONIUM FACTORY; GREENPEACE WARNS OF SERIOUS ENVIRONMENT/HEALTH HAZARD

12 March 1998

London, UK - Greenpeace today released new data which shows that pigeons living in the area of British Nuclear Fuels' (BNFL) Sellafield plutonium reprocessing plant have been so severely contaminated that they are now flying nuclear waste. Greenpeace has warned that sampling results suggest that the birds may pose a serious public health and environmental hazard.

The new Greenpeace data is based on the analysis of pigeon flesh, feathers and faeces-contaminated soil. The analysis was undertaken by the independent French lab ACRO in Caen. In some cases, internal contamination of the pigeons was found to be beyond safety levels set by the EC in the aftermath of nuclear accidents. Contamination of pigeons feathers was found to include high levels of such dangerous isotopes as Americium and Caesium which would require the pigeons to be classified as nuclear waste in British laboratories.

According to the analysis, 90% of the contamination comes from Caesium-137, with 403,000 bequerels per kilogramme. This is on the feathers of the birds, and thus poses a serious health risk to anyone coming into contact with them. In addition the presence of the isotope Cerium-144, which has a half -life of approximately one year, suggests that the contamination is much more recent than MAFF and BNFL have stated.

"It is clear that things are such a mess at Sellafield that these pigeons are getting exposed to deadly nuclear material which they then carry off-site," said Shaun Burnie of Greenpeace. "While it is terrifying that the pigeons have themselves become nuclear waste it is of grave concern that their flesh, feathers and droppings pose a direct threat to human health and the environment."

Indications of the contamination of the pigeons was raised by the UK Ministry of Agriculture and Fisheries (MAFF) on February 14 of this year. While MAFF warned local people against handling or eating pigeons within ten miles of Sellafield, they have not released additional sampling information about the contamination of the birds nor of the environment.

Greenpeace's samples show that pigeon droppings have contaminated soil off the Sellafield site to levels of radioactivity higher than those which forced the US government to clean-up after nuclear weapons testing at Rongelap Atoll in the Pacific.

"How can BNFL pretend that they have their plutonium factory under control when they have nuclear waste flying over the fence," said Burnie. "People have a right to know the true impact of Sellafield's plutonium reprocessing and nuclear waste discharges into the environment. BNFL can not try to suppress this information because they are seeking a new discharge authorisation and MAFF should not be dragging its feet in providing information to the public."

A public consultation on discharges of nuclear waste from Sellafield's ocean discharge pipe and chimneys is currently underway and due to finish on March 16. It is estimated that Sellafield currently discharges some 9 million litres of nuclear waste into the sea each day. Radioactive contamination from the plant pervades the marine ecosystems of the Irish Sea and is swept by ocean currents northwards into the North, Baltic, Norwegian, Barent and Greenland Seas.

Greenpeace is calling on MAFF to conduct an investigation into how the pigeons have been contaminated, whether other avenues exist for radioactivity to be leaking off-site and what environmental and public health affects are being posed by the pigeons.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION PLEASE CONTACT:

Shaun Burnie 00-3120-523 6257

Jon Walter 31-20-524 9547

Greenpeace is presenting evidence to the House of Lords Science and Technology select committee on nuclear waste management today (Thursday 12 March, 10.30am) and will be available for interview afterwards.

A letter concerning the levels of radioactivity found in pigeons and lobsters at Sellafield has been sent to Michael Meacher MP to alert him to the serious implications of the findings and to urge him to raise the matter of Sellafield's discharge authorisations with the OSPAR Commission. There is to be a Ministerial Meeting of OSPAR States in July this year in Lisbon when the issue of radioactive discharges will be on the agenda.

Last week, Nordic environment Ministers, represented by Anna Lindh, the Swedish Environment Minister, wrote to Michael Meacher expressing their grave concerns about the levels of nuclear discharges reaching their shores and urging him to take action.

(1) Sellafield imports nuclear waste fuel for reprocessing from countries like Germany and Japan. Reprocessing of nuclear waste fuel at Sellafield causes massive radioactive discharges, separates out weapons-useable plutonium and increases the volume of nuclear waste in Britain.

(2) Analysis report of the Association for the Control of Radiation in the West (ACRO), Independent Laboratory for the Analysis of Radioactivity. Available on request.

(3) BNFL, which owns Sellafield, has applied to the Environment Agency to increase discharges of radioactive gases, have controls on discharges from the THORP reprocessing plant weakened, and continue to discharge all its liquid reprocessing wastes to sea.