UK’s radioactive pollution at Dalgety Bay to be cleaned up after 31 years

Radioactive pollution at Dalgety Bay to be cleaned up after 31 years,The Ferrret, Rob Edwards, May 14, 2021, The clean-up of radioactive pollution by the Ministry of Defence (MoD) at Dalgety Bay in Fife is to start — 31 years after it was first discovered.

The Scottish Environment Protection Agency (Sepa) has announced that work to decontaminate a stretch of foreshore on the north of the Firth of Forth near a popular sailing club will begin on 17 May. It is expected to be finished in 2022.

Sepa promised that the clean-up would provide a “permanent and positive resolution” to the decades-old pollution. It was “an important milestone for Dalgety Bay”, the agency said.

Campaigners have welcomed the news, but said that it was “utterly disgraceful” that it had taken so long to deal with the contamination. Locals and visitors had been put at risk for “many unnecessary years”, they argued

The £10m clean-up has long been the subject of fierce arguments and delays. Local politicians have repeatedly accused the MoD of refusing to take responsibility, and dragging its heels.

The contamination comes from second world war planes, and was accidentally detected during monitoring in 1990. Luminous, radioactive radium was used to make plane dials glow in the dark so they could be read at night.

After the war the planes were incinerated and dumped as landfill, on which part of the town of Dalgety Bay was built in the 1960s. Since 1990 more than 3,000 radioactive particles have been found on the beach and in local gardens.

Hundreds of particles, many of them potentially hazardous, keep being washed ashore from a headland being eroded by the sea. To protect public health, access to contaminated areas was restricted in 2011, and fishing was banne…………

According to Friends of the Earth Scotland, the area had been “blighted” by radioactive pollution that was “dangerous” to people and wildlife. “It is great news that a clean up is about to get underway but it is utterly disgraceful that it has taken more than thirty years to begin properly dealing with the problems,” said the environmental group’s director, Dr Richard Dixon.

“MoD denial and foot dragging has left locals and visitors at risk for many unnecessary years. A big part of the problem has been the MoD’s fear that if they admit they have to pay to clean up Dalgety Bay they’ll be on the hook for massive bills for similar work that needs to done throughout the UK.”……….

The 50-strong group of Nuclear Free Local Authorities has been working with Fife Council to help get the Dalgety Bay foreshore decontaminated…………https://theferret.scot/radioactive-pollution-dalgety-bay-cleaned-up/