WISE NC; IRISH/CANADIAN N-POLICIES CALLED INTO QUESTION

Plans for the construction of a nuclear irradiation plant in Westport, Ireland are being fought by two Irish environmental groups -- Earth-watch, a national environmental organization, and Radiation Alert!, a local organization. If built, the plant would form the largest source of artificial radiation in Ireland. The plant is proposed by Gammaster Ireland Ltd. primarily for sterilizing medical equipment. It has already been given planning approval, which the groups are now appealing.

(346.3460) WISE Amsterdam - In appealing against the plant, Earthwatch is asking that the planning process look beyond the local environment. In this case the environmental implications of the nuclear industry in Canada must be taken into account along with the hazards posed by the project in Ireland itself.

The process of irradiation involves passing objects to be sterilized through a concrete chamber in which is situated a radiation source. In Westport this source would be cobalt-60, produced by placing non-radioactive cobalt-59 in a nuclear reactor. Obviously, since Ireland has no nuclear reactors, the material would have to come from elsewhere -- in this case Canada, which supplies the vast majority of cobalt-60 worldwide. The plant would not simply make use of radio-active waste already existing, but would be responsible for additional radio-active waste being produced. Ireland would not be stuck with the waste since it would be returned to Canada. But, says Earthwatch, the fact that the destiny for this waste would be Canada rather than Westport does not make it any more acceptable. And, the group says, since the Irish government opposes Sellafield and has a professed anti-nuclear stance, the setting up of this plant would appear to be rather hypocritical.

Accidents at irradiation facilities may happen at any stage, causing exposure of workers, the public and the environment. Often, lack of local expertise means that maintenance teams have to be flown in from overseas to deal with emergencies. The following accidents all happened in plants built and operated under the inter-nationally agreed system of regulation and control:

In 1986, the US NRC revoked the license for Radiation Technology Inc in New Jersey for repeated violations of worker and environmental safety. Incidents included by-passing safety interlock systems resulting in exposure of a worker to the unshielded source (1977) and illegally burying contaminated material from a leaking cobalt-60 source (1975). The company president ordered employees to lie to NRC investigators. The NRC action resulted in his resignation. His new company, Alpha Omega Technology, has approached the World Bank for funds to build irradiation facilities in South East Asia.
A leaking source from Isomedix in New Jersey contaminated the pond water which was then disposed of down the toilets, contaminating the sewage system and exposing workers to radiation.
The International Nutronics company was fined in 1986 after cover-up of a radioactive spill back in 1982. Management ordered employees to dispose of the radioactive water down shower stalls and move their radiation badges from their belts to their collars to record lower doses.
A radioactive leak at a demonstration irradiator in Hawaii in 1967 contaminated the pond water, shipping cask, roof, machine room, tools and worker's clothing. Dangerously high levels of contaminatin were still detectable outside the building in 1980.
A leaking cesium source at Radiation Sterilizers Inc in Georgia, USA in June 1988 contaminated the pond water, workers' clothing, cars and home carpets, as well as some of the irradiatied products including medical supplies and milk cartons.
At Benton Dickinson in Connecticut, USA in 1981, aluminum boxes containing products being irradiated jammed into the source rack. Despite this, the control panel indicated that the cobalt source was safely inside its storage pool. Technicians had to be called in from Canada. While lowering the rack they dis-lodged several cobalt rods.
A maintenance worker at Stimos in Italy entered the irradiatin cell of a corn irradiation facility on the conveyor belt while the source was operational. He received a high radiation dose and died 12 days later.
Failure of safety devices at a facility in Norway allowed a mainte-nance technician to enter the irradiation cell with the source exposed. He died 13 days later.
Three workers at the Delmed plant in El Salvador received serious radiation injuries after irradiation equipment malfunctioned in February 1989. Delmed had to call the plant suppliers to send a maintenance team from Canada to remove the cobalt from the defective source rack.

Source: Anumukti (India), Feb. 1990

By importing cobalt-60, and the technology that goes with it, Ireland is helping to finance the Canadian nuclear industry. Environmentalists have long known that when the real costs of nuclear power (including waste disposal and decommissioning) are taken into account, and artificial subsidies are removed, nuclear power is uneconomic. Investors have finally figured that out, too: The unattractiveness of the nuclear industry was shown in the attempts to privatize electricity generation in the UK. The Canadian nuclear industry is no more attractive. Government subsidies to Atomic Energy Canada Ltd (AECL) stand at $224 million per year. Between 1982 and 1990 these government subsidies totalled $12 billion. In fact, says Earthwatch, gamma irradiation and nuclear medicine could be what has been keeping the nuclear industry alive in Canada. "Nucleonics Week" reported last year that these two areas comprised 80% of AECL's profits. Just why Canada needs a nuclear industry at all is not clear, since Canada is one of the few developed countries with abundant indigenous energy supplies. Nevertheless, 40% of the energy research and development budget is spent on nuclear energy.

Irradiation has other implications, as well. Apart from the potential for disaster at the Canadian nuclear plants where the cobalt-60 is produced, as well as during transit of the isotope, there is the Westport plant itself. There have been a number of serious accidents at irradiation plants, some of them fatal to members of the workforce, others involving the release of radioactivity to the environment. Data on these was not included in Gammaster's environmental impact statement (EIS), despite its obvious relevance in the planning process. It seems unlikely that Ireland would have the expertise to cope with any such emergency. The public can also be put at risk -- there have been instances recorded of sewage systems becoming contaminated with radioactive water. Another problem that could exist around a large irradiation plant is the development of radiation resistant bacteria. These have been found in areas of high natural or artificial radiation and could be more pathogenic than native forms according to the UK Advisory Committee on Irradiated and Novel Foods.

The proposed plant is of a type capable of irradiating food. At present, no food is irradiated in Ireland, but the planning conditions for the Westport plant do not prohibit this as a use.

It is perhaps more obvious why medical equipment should be sterilized than food, but if it has to be done, it does not need to be by nuclear technology. Alternative methods of sterilization include electrically produced X-rays, steam, hydrogen peroxide, ethylene oxide, among others. Many of these may have their own limitations or environmental problems, Earthwatch says, but they should be investigated and the most environment-friendly alternative found.

Source and contact: Earthwatch, Bantry, County Cork, Ireland, tel: +353 27 50968 or 51283, fax: +353 27 50545.


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Irish/Canadian N-policies called into question