NRPB-W20: Non-technical summary

Non-technical summary

This report is the latest in a series in which the results of the NRPB environmental radioactivity surveillance programme are presented, and contains the basic data for the year 2000. Since the 1970s the NRPB has measured the amount of radioactivity in airborne dust and milk. Airborne dust is sampled from Glasgow and Guernsey. Milk is sampled from Chilton, Leeds, Glasgow, the Isle of Man, Jersey and Guernsey. The sampling sites have been chosen to represent the whole of the UK. In the past, radioactivity from nuclear weapons tested in the atmosphere and from the nuclear reactor accident at Chernobyl in the Ukraine in 1986 has been detected. Since the beginning of the 1990s the levels of radioactivity in the environment have fallen to very low levels and are now almost undetectable.

The programme would also be able to detect any other sources of significant widespread contamination in the environment. The results for the year 2000 are similar to those of recent years and continue to show a downward trend in the amount of man-made radioactivity in the environment. No sources of radioactivity other than weapons testing and the Chernobyl accident were detected.

In addition to the main programme, samples of airborne dust and milk have been collected from separate sites close to the Sellafield nuclear fuel reprocessing plant in west Cumbria. The results are consistent with those reported by the site operator, British Nuclear Fuels plc, and the Food Standards Agency.

Last reviewed: 1 September 2009