Commons statement due on radioactive waste dumping

The Government is make a formal announcement about radioactive waste secretly dumped near shipping lanes between Scotland and Ireland 40 years ago. The dumping of low to intermediate-level waste took place in Beaufort Dyke, in the Irish Sea, in the 1950s. It was from private companies and amounted to up to two tonnes of waste in drums encased in concrete.

A Scottish Office spokesman said there would be a Commons announcement; officials were trying to establish details of materials and quantities disposed of before a full announcement was made by the Ministry of Agriculture Fisheries and Food. A MAFF spokesman said levels of radioactive material were so insignificant they could not be measured. Beaufort Dyke is a seven- mile munitions dump used by the Ministry of Defence since the 1920s in spite of its position near shipping lanes. Kate Watson-Smyth