OTHER GEOSCIENCES ADVISORY UNIT ACTIVITIES

• Severn Estuary Tritium Study for the Food Standards Agency
• Technetium-99: A report for Greenpeace Research Laboratory, University of Exeter
• AWE Hunting-BRAE Survey (now AWE plc)
• Greenham Common & District Survey
• Harwell Area Survey - Vale of White Horse District Council
• Thorium & Tungsten Contamination Survey - Adur District Council
• Seawater & Seaweed Surveys - Bournemouth Borough Council & Isle of Wight Council
• Jersey Radiation Monitoring Scheme
• Review of Iveco-Ford Plant Survey, Langley - Slough Borough Council
• Northern Ireland Radiation Monitoring Group
• Orkney Islands Council
• UKAEA
• HMS Sultan

Organically-bound tritium (OBT) dispersion and accumulation in Severn Estuary sediments (R01034) - A Study for the Food Standards Agency

This 3-year study set out to evaluate the interaction between organically-bound tritium and sediment. It focused on the extent and controls on the uptake and loss of tritiated compounds from sediment, and its dispersal in the environment. The study was completed in October 2002.

This report can now be viewed in Adobe PDF format here

The Adobe reader is required to read the report and can be downloaded from here

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Concern over the increasing levels of Technetium-99 activity discharged from Sellafield resulted in the GAU being commissioned to undertake measurement of ⁹⁹Tc on samples collected from the Scottish, Irish and Scandinavian coastlines by the Greenpeace laboratory.

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The long-standing public concern about possible radioactive contamination from the two AWE factories in west Berkshire and the existence of leukaemia clusters in west Berkshire caused unease about the establishments. The Commission on the Medical Aspects of Radiation in the Environment (COMARE) could find no clear links between leukaemia and radioactivity. AWE Hunting-BRAE decided to award a research contact to the Geosciences Advisory Unit to carry out a 3-year study of environmental radioactivity in west Berkshire. Local councils were involved in an oversight group. Three reports have been produced which are publicly available.

Croudace, I.W., Warwick, P.E., Taylor, R.N., Bradshaw K and Warneke T. (1999)   Assessment of radioactive contamination around the AWE sites in Berkshire.   Report 1 to AWE Hunting-BRAE, 80pp.

Croudace, I.W., Warwick, P.E., Cundy A.B., Warneke T. and Taylor, R.N (2000)   Assessment of radioactive contamination around the AWE sites in Berkshire.   Report 2 to AWE Hunting-BRAE, 65pp.

Croudace, I.W., Warwick, P.E., Warneke T., Cundy A.B. and Taylor, R.N (2002)   Assessment of radioactive contamination around the AWE sites in Berkshire.   Report 3 to AWE Hunting-BRAE, 90pp.

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GREENHAM COMMON & DISTRICT SURVEY 1997

A Survey was commissioned by Newbury District Council and Basingstoke and Deane Borough Council to investigate the alleged nuclear accident due to fire at the Greenham Common Airbase in 1958. This high profile study sparked considerable media and public interest. Following a detailed isotopic It found no evidence to support the allegation of an incident involving accidental damage to nuclear weapons on the airbase. Three reports were produced which are publicly available.

Croudace I.W., Warwick P.E., Taylor R.N. and Cundy A.B. (2000)   Investigation of an alleged nuclear incident at Greenham Common airbase using TI-mass spectrometric measuremnts of uranium isotopes.   Environmental Science and Technology, 34, 4496-4503.

The main purpose of this recommended study was to establish if the activity measured during the SURRC airborne survey around the UKAEA (Harwell Laboratory) site in September 1996 (part of the Greenham Common Survey). Soil samples were collected from two parallel transects. It was found that the contamination found at the UKAEA site (whatever its origin) is of low radiological significance. The levels of environmental radioactivity are within expected levels for the Vale.

The aim of the survey was to identify whether the current operation of the Tungsten Manufacturing Factory at Shoreham had a measurable effect on airborne tungsten and thoriated tungsten concentrations and whether this would be a cause for concern to a local residential area following relocation of the grinding operations. The thorium activity found in two air filter samples taken were extremely low. This indicates that, on the basis of this limited study, the grinding of thoriated tungsten does not increase the levels of thorium found in the environment around the factory.

Media interest in discharges from the reprocessing plant at La Hague was stimulated in the summer of 1997 by statements from Greenpeace. They had sampled near the site and made claims that linked the site operations to a possible leukaemia cluster reported in the January edition of the British Medical Journal. Claims of readings of 155 million becquerels of tritium per litre in sea-water were made by Greenpeace. The Isle of Wight Council asked the SERMG Laboratory to make some radiometric measurements on seawater and seaweed samples from East Cowes, on the north of the island and from Wheelers Bay, Ventnor in the south of the island. Bournemouth Borough Council independently also commissioned a small seawater survey to establish any possible impact from the La Hague plant. There was no measurable evidence for discharges from La Hague affecting the Dorset coast.

Operations and incidents at the La Hague reprocessing facility led to public concern around the Channel Islands and among the southern coastal authorities in the UK. This survey made an initial assessment of recent impacts.

In July 1997, the Geosciences Advisory Unit was asked to review the findings of an investigation performed by Geraghty and Miller International Inc. on behalf of the Ford Motor company. The Ford Motor planned to sell the site for redevelopment. One of the buildings on the site, originally housed the JASON research reactor which operated on the site from 1959 to 1962 before being decommissioned and relocated to the Royal Naval College at Greenwich. The review by the SERMG laboratory considered and reported on these aims of the Geraghty and Miller investigation. It was found that the techniques used were suitable and capable of detecting significant increases in dose-rate. Contamination monitoring was appropriate for the assessment of radiologically significant levels of both fission and activation products.

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A consortium of 26 Local Authorities (NIRMG) which first reported results in 1991 commissioned the GAU to carry out a survey which involves the measurement of a range of gamma, alpha and beta emitters on approximately 80 samples each year. Annual reports are produced yearly for NIRMG.

The GAU was contracted (1997 and 2000) to monitor 20 samples for alpha and gamma emitting isotopes in winkles and seaweed from 10 sites across the Orkney Islands. This project was concerned with identifying any possible contamination of the marine environment arising from nuclear sites.

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