Parliamentary Search

Written question asked by Nick Harvey (Liberal Democrat) on Thursday, 18 December 2008, in the House of Commons. It was due for an answer on Monday, 12 January 2009. It was answered by Lord Beamish (Labour) on Monday, 12 January 2009 on behalf of the Ministry of Defence.

Nuclear Weapons: Testing

Question
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence what levels of radioactivity were recorded during the 2005 decontamination exercise on Kiritimati; what materials were recovered during the exercise; what types of contamination were removed from the island; and at what levels.
Answer

Removal of waste arising from the UK nuclear weapons test programme on the island of Kiritimati was undertaken between 2005 and 2008. Previous survey work had identified elevated levels of radioactivity associated with the presence of radium-226, commonly used to luminise vehicle instruments at the time of the test programme, but no other elevated levels of radioactivity substances were identified during the 2005 and 2008 programme.The materials (including non-radioactive) comprised approximately:

Cubic metres/kg
Bitumen 15,000 cubic metres
Metal items 25,000 cubic metres
Rubber 150 cubic metres
Asbestos 150 cubic metres
Radium luminised dials 175 kg

A total of 111 individual locations were identified where elevated levels of radioactivity associated with radium-226 were present. Removal of the radium required both the actual instrument and a small quantity of soil to be taken from the site.The highest radioactive material fell into the low level waste category.All of the sites were extremely localised with radium-226 restricted to an area of no more than a few square metres.

Secondary information

Type
Written question
Reference
486 c107-8W; 246874
Session
2008-09
Subjects
Contamination Nuclear weapons Testing Christmas Island
Contains statistics
Yes
Link
View this Written question on www.publications.parliament.uk