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5. Incidental to the production of nuclear fuel came an accumulation
of mixed fission products; and with them the problem
of 'waste disposal'.
Of these hazards, that of greatest potential is from the reactors.
2. Reactors and processing establishments produce large quantities
of radio-active wastes which have to be disposed of. The methods
include storage, deposit on ocean beds and land burial. All—solid,
liquid or gas—call for rigid control of their transport and final
resting place.
Control of fluid effluents to rivers, estuaries and the sea off-shore
is exercised jointly by the Ministry of Housing and Local Government
and the Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food. Transport
of active fuel products by road is controlled by the Authority and
the police. Until recently, gaseous effluents have not given cause
for anxiety. Stacks are monitored and the air entering and leaving
the stack is filtered. The whole area of the site and the country for
many miles round is regularly monitored. Samples of pasture,
vegetable and animal life are regularly examined radiologically and
chemically.
3. Up to about ten years ago, major sources of radiation were in
the main confined to hospitals, physics departments of universities
and some heavy industry establishments. Today, the situation is
very different. There is widespread employment not only of closed
sources but also of nuclides (naturally and artificially produced
elements for distributive employment in solution).
Open sources are a potential hazard by inhalation and ingestion.
They call for elaborate methods of containment, shielding, remote
handling and disposal.
Ionising radiation absorbed in the body whether from external or
internal sources is measured in the unit rem. The average person
receives from the various natural sources a total dose to the gonads
of about 1 rem in the course of ten years. Opinion favours the
limitation of gonad exposure to a total of 6 rem in the first thirty
years of life, this figure being additional to the unavoidable 3 rem
in this period. The additional dose for each mass radiography
examination is about 1/4000th rem, and for diagnostic radiography
of sites in the region of the gonads 1 rem. Apart from the genetic
effect there is no reason to suppose that any harm befalls an individual
through exposure to radiation at average levels considerably higher
than these.
4. The Agricultural Research Council accept responsibility for
monitoring soil, herbage, farm animals and milk and other foodstuffs.
Atomic Energy Research Establishments remain responsible for
monitoring air and rain water, and for analysing the radio-activity
present in samples of human bone.
The Ministry of Housing and Local Government and the Ministry
of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food jointly exercise control of fluid
effluents to rivers, estuaries and the sea off-shore.