Nuclear clean-up ‘harmful’

RADIOACTIVE particles will never fully be cleaned up from the seabed off Dounreay, Scotland’s environment watchdog has admitted, prompting a furious reaction from environmentalists.

The Scottish Environment Protection Agency (Sepa) recommended in 1998 that the seabed should be returned to a “pristine condition”.

However, the agency now says that this is not possible and trying to achieve it may cause more harm than good.

The particles, or hotspots, are fragments of irradiated nuclear fuel discharged to sea as a result of practices in reprocessing during the 1960s and 1970s.

Stan Blackley, chief executive of Friends of the Earth Scotland, said: “Once again, we see the nuclear industry causing a problem it can’t solve, and dumping the cost and consequence on the rest of us.”