The Celtic League has alerted the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) to the potential dangers posed if deep level aggregate extraction is given the go ahead off the north east of the Isle of Man.

Earlier this year it was announced that the Isle of Man DTI had licensed exploratory work in the area.

Sea-bed sediments in the area which have lain undisturbed for decades are known to be seriously contaminated. In 1990 the UKs Radioactive Waste Management Advisory Committee (RAWMAC) warned in a report on pollution from Sellafield that:

"There is still some concern about the fate of the larger quantities of radioactivity discharged in the past. "

They also said:

"The plutonium and americium (decays into plutonium) in the discharges have been found not to disperse but to concentrate in the fine cohesive sediments of the Irish Sea.''

The Celtic League have invited the IAEA to give its views on the danger of disturbing such contaminated settled sediments (see below).

"By E-mail

For the attention:

Ronald Sturm Senior External Relations and Policy Officer Technology and Safety Policy Coordination Interagency Affairs and Protocol Section Office of External Relations and Policy Coordination International Atomic Energy Agency Vienna Austria

Dear Mr Sturm,

I write further to our earlier concerns expressed to the Agency in relation to contamination of the marine environment of the north Irish sea area.

The Celtic League were extremely concerned to learn recently that the Isle of Man government had licensed exploratory work off the north east coast of the Isle of Man as a probable precursor to deep level aggregate extraction in the sea area between Maughold Head on the Isle of Man and the Cumbrian coast. You will be aware that this is an area where sea bed sediments are heavily contaminated by discharges, for over forty years, from the Sellafield nuclear reprocessing plant.

Can I ask if the United Kingdom government has advised the IAEA that aggregate extraction is being contemplated in this area?

In addition, given the possible dispersal of sediment, should such aggregate extraction take place, does the IAEA believe that deep level (i.e. to a depth of two metres) aggregate extraction in radioactively contaminated sediment is safe?

For your information we have conveyed our concerns to the Isle of Man government, the Irish government and relevant environment organisations in the United Kingdom (see links below).

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Yours sincerely,"

See also Celtic News:

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J B Moffatt Director of Information Celtic League

07/08/07

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