SELLAFIELD CAUSES NORWAY TROUBLE.
Norway points the finger at Britain over it's Arctic lobster business by saying that the UK is failing to stop radioactive waste from being discharged from Sellafield nuclear plant in Cumbria.
There has been a discovery of a significant rise in the level of the chemical technetium-99 found in lobsters caught off the Norwegian coast, and the prices of lobster is now falling.
Britain has said it will try to reduce radioactive discharges from Sellafield in the past, but never the less seems to have increased the discharges of technetium-99.
CONTAMINATION?
Norway's Environment minister
has a chat with Mr Meacher |
| The Environment minister for Norway, Borge Brende, had words with his overseas equivalent, Michael Meacher, over delays in planning to stop discharges from the Sellafield plant of the chemical technetium-99 into the Irish sea. |
The environment agency has been keeping an eye on a new method of making the chemical harmless at the plant, but this has been delayed because of technical setbacks.
This harmful chemical, if absorbed by humans, accumulates in the thyroid gland and intestines and greatly increases cancer risks. Norway has protested to the European commission, asking it to intervene.
WILL THERE BE A PROTEST?
Norway and Ireland are expected to protest to the Ospar commission in Bremen, Germany, which controls polluting discharges into the seas of Europe.
The agency is to consult on whether British Nuclear Fuels should build a special storage facility so it can impose a moratorium on future discharges.
Mr Meacher has told Norway that he does not really want to have to impose a moratorium without a new storage facility being available. |
