Radioactivity levels 'low'

The Northern Ireland Radiation Monitoring Co-Ordinating Committee (NIRMCC) tested shellfish, fish, seaweed and sediment throughout the wider North West area last June 2009.

But it found radioactivity from the Sellafield nuclear power plant and weapons tests to be very low throughout Northern Ireland.

Mussels from Eglinton, seaweed and silt from Limavady, a spring well in Claudy and haddock and whiting from Malin Head were all tested by the committee. The public - the committee said - has nothing to fear from radioactivity.

The NIRMCC report, submitted to Derry City Council recently, concluded: "Although small quantities of anthropogenic (man-made or artificial) radionuclides have been identified in many of the materials examined none of the levels found is expected to be hazardous to the public.

"The levels represent a small fraction of the national legislative (cautionary) limits of radiation dose to members of the public. All the contamination values are well below the 10 per cent Investigation Levels."

It continued: "Transuranic radionuclides originating from Sellafield discharges and from weapon's tests are all found to be very low and of no radiological concern.

"In this context, the highest levels of contamination are associated with fine-grained (muddy) marine sediments, as would be expected."

It goes on: "Technetium-99 has been measured in four samples of seaweed, six samples of shellfish, and two samples of silt. Results show measurable though radiologically modest levels of 99Tc as throughout the previous NIRMCC contracts (1996-2008).

"Three samples of fish were analysed for Carbon-14 and although the radionuclide was measurable, the activity was low and not of radiological concern."