OSLO, Norway, March 26, 2001 (ENS) - Norway's environment minister has reiterated calls for Britain to close its nuclear reprocessing plant at Sellafield after a report that levels of Sellafield derived radioactivity along the Norwegian coast have increased six-fold since 1996.

Norway depends heavily on the utilization of marine resources and the quality of the marine environment. Radioactive contaminants which are transported from UK reprocessing facilities to Norwegian waters is therefore an issue of considerable public concern in Norway, said Norwegian Environment Minister Siri Bjerk.

 Norwegian Environment Minister Siri Bjerk. (Photo courtesy Office of the Minister)

 In an interview with Bergen's "Tidende" newspaper, Siri Bjerke said, "The Sellafield plant should be closed."

 "Reprocessing is a poor way of dealing with radioactive waste. Such materials are better kept in long term, secure storage facilities," Bjerke said. Norway, which derives nearly all of its electricity from hydropower, has no nuclear reactors or nuclear reprocessing facilities.

"From experience we know that the international seafood markets are extremely susceptible even to rumours of radioactive pollution. We are therefore concerned that continued pollution from Sellafield may taint the public perception of our seafood and other marine products," said Turid Sand, acting director general in a letter from the Norwegian Ministry of Environment to the UK's Sellafield Review Environment Agency in February.

The government of Norway will be expressing its "grave concern" to the British authorities, Bjerke said, in part through a meeting scheduled for later this year between Norway's prime minister and his British counterpart.

British Nuclear Fuels Ltd. Sellafield facility (Photo courtesy BNFL)

Concentrations of technetium 99 in Norwegian seaweed have risen from 100 to 600 becquerels per kilogram dry weight over the five year period, according to figures from the Institute for Energy Technology released Saturday.

The isotope has been discharged by the UK plant since 1994, but was first detected off Scandinavia only three years ago.

The finding sparked deep concern in Nordic countries, and Norway has previously called for an 80 percent cut in technetium emissions as a "minimum solution" pending Sellafield's closure. The Norwegians are especially worried that public fears about radioactivity could affect its fisheries.

At the ministerial meeting of the OSPAR Convention for the Protection of the Marine Environment of the North East Atlantic, held in Sintra, Portugal in July 1998, 15 governments and the European Commission signed an agreement to end the discharge of radioactive substances into the sea and air.

Nuclear reprocessing involves the extraction of plutonium from nuclear waste fuel after it has been used in nuclear reactors. Reprocessing is the major source of radioactive discharges to both sea and air in the OSPAR region.

The 1998 Sintra agreement says that concentrations in the environment should reach "close to zero" by 2020. Most reprocessing discharges must be stopped now if they are to result in concentrations in the environment by 2020 that are no higher than they are now.

This is because many radioactive substances, such as plutonium or technetium-99, last for far longer than 20 years. If any of these substances are discharged to the Irish Sea or English Channel today they will still cause an increase in concentrations in the environment in 2020.