Dear Friends,

An update on the Irish Sea saga

The nuclear industry's impact on our seas continues and in the case of the Irish Sea and Whitehaven harbour the impacts of radioactive wastes are magnified.   Heavy metals in acid mine pollution have been gushing into the harbour known as the "Gateway to the Lakes" since 2022. It is now known that the presence of heavy metals enhance the impacts of radioactive waste - a double whammy. There have been no banner headlines in the national press and precious little about this in the local press.

There have however been brilliant letters/opinion pieces in the press, in the Welsh regional paper Cambrian News Elly Foster writes:  “The Sellafield nuclear disposal facility mainly deals with nuclear waste decommissioning and storage. Campaigners from Radiation Free Lakeland commissioned a report on pollution in Whitehaven harbour. Funded by private donations, here are some of the findings: We knew that there would be uranium and radon in the silt in the harbour as a result of the acid mine pollution gushing into the harbour from old and deep mines but in the silt in Whitehaven harbour is a highly radioactive element called Americium 241 - this can only have come from the nuclear industry- how it got there- via the Irish Sea from Sellafield discharges or via the decades of nuclear waste transports - or both - remains to be tested”.    

It has taken two years for the authorities to admit that the acid mine pollution is causing harm and that the harbour silt should not be ingested or paddled in - of the radioactive wastes in the harbour there is not a peep.

Some time ago I wrote to Sellafield and the Whitehaven Youth Project on behalf of Radiation Free Lakeland urging the nuclear industry to ditch their much heralded Seabin project and stop exposing children to the contaminated harbour water and silt Sellafield wrote back putting the responsibility for children's welfare onto the Whitehaven Harbour Youth Project.  The nuclear industry have a vested interest in greenwashing radioactive wastes which can only have come from Sellafield.

Here is the letter I wrote:

 “Dear Whitehaven Harbour Youth Project,

The seabins are an excellent idea to clean up plastic pollution but the pollution in Whitehaven Harbour is far more insidious.  We asked Sellafield if they had tested the silt from the seabins in respect of health and safety of children and young people working with the bins.  Sellafield replied that this was Whitehaven Youth Project's  responsibility.  We do not agree especially as our own investigations into the pollution in Whitehaven Harbour includes not only dangerous acid mine pollution but also highly radioactive elements such as Americium 241 in the silt which can only have come from Sellafield.  We urge you not to expose children to this pollution which if inhaled or ingested is dangerous to health.   Here is our own report into the pollution which is ongoing.  We have asked the authorities to routinely test the water and silt but the testing has been minimal - for example the silt on the lip of the culvert in Queen’s Dock should be tested - but has not.”   

We would like to do more sampling and testing, if people have the means to help there is a crowdfunder but another way to help is to get this into the public consciousness - write letters to the press, talk about it and ask why this is not being urgently addressed given the ongoing devastating health impacts on marine life and humans with no end in sight.  

Having dumped radioactive wastes down their pipeline into the Irish Sea for decades Sellafield have been asked to provide their expertise to solve the acid mine pollution gushing into the harbour.  Sellafield have a vested interest in pretending all is well - to this end they (ie we) have even funded a £multi-million watersports centre on the harbour called the Edge for families to paddle about in the contaminated harbour silt. 

This should be repurposed as a centre for investigations into ongoing pollution incidents!   

Onwards and Upwards