Vol. 507 No. 2
25 Mr. Sargent asked the Minister for Public Enterprise the policy and record in her Department in monitoring tritium gas discharge levels from the Sellafield plant in view of the fact that THORP began further reprocessing of AGR reactor fuel on 3 May 1999 and this material was suspected as a cause of leaks at THORP before. [14905/99]
The Radiological Protection Institute of Ireland, RPII, monitors the effect of discharges from Sellafield on the Irish environment, paying particular attention to those radionuclides which are most likely to be of significance and relevance to Ireland. The actual quantities discharged from Sellafield are measured on site and the data is published by BNFL and the UK authorities.
I understand from the RPII that tritium is a radionuclide of very low radiotoxicity and is of relatively little relevance to Ireland from the health point of view. The RPII does not monitor tritium levels in air but it does test fish and shellfish samples from the Irish Sea for tritium. In all cases, the tritium levels were below the level of detection. I am advised by the RPII that as tritium is produced in the upper atmosphere due to cosmic radiation and brought to the earth's surface by rainfall, the detection of tritium in Ireland arising from Sellafield atmospheric discharges in the light of the naturally-occurring background levels would be extremely difficult.
