Beach monitoring

Project

Environmental monitoring for public and stakeholder reassurance

Benefits

Improved understanding of the radioactive material recovered from the beaches demonstrates our compliance to regulatory requirements and provides assurances that the risks to the public are very low.

Current Status

The programme is ongoing and a framework contract has been awarded to Nuvia Ltd to conduct beach monitoring programmes up to the maximum contract duration of 10 years.

Delivery Partners

AtkinsRéalis, British Geological Survey, Department of Health and Social Care Committee on the Medical Aspects of Radiation in the Environment, EA, Golder Associates Ltd, NRS, Nuvia Ltd, UK Health Security Agency, West Cumbria Sites Stakeholders Group

Contact Details

Richard Hill, Peter Sanders and Laura Newsome

innovation.team@sellafieldsites.com

Routine beach monitoring for radioactivity has been carried out since the early 1980s. This was originally to detect material accidentally released from the Sellafield site but was subsequently extended to consider a wider range of materials. In 2006 we started monitoring beaches local to the Sellafield site with specialised vehicle-mounted equipment. The aim of the programme was to recover and characterise discrete radioactive objects from the beaches and provide assurance to the public and stakeholders. We currently survey over 100 hectares of beaches between Drigg and Allonby every year.

Since 2006 more than 3,500 radioactive objects have been recovered from the beaches. Approximately 70% were primarily alpha-rich (containing plutonium and americium) and 30% were classified as beta-rich (containing caesium-137). All recovered items were also classified by size, with 80% being particles (<2 mm in size), and the rest larger objects.

Research conducted by the UK Health Security Agency, Golder Associates and the British Geological Survey has investigated the detailed characteristics of sub-sets of beach finds. These investigations involved using scanning electron microscopy, chemical analysis, radiochemistry, gamma spectrometry and dosimetry. The results showed that alpha-rich particles were plutonium-bearing iron and iron oxides, beta-rich particles were associated with a wider range of matrices and beta-rich larger objects were primarily contaminated natural materials.

Further work by AtkinsRéalis updated the conceptual site model for beach finds, identifying that they were likely to have been released to the environment in the past and are moving in a generally northward direction along the coast, akin to the movements of natural beach materials.

A risk assessment conducted by UK Health Security Agency showed that the risks to beach users were very low and significantly lower than the typical risks that people accept when using beaches. The ongoing monitoring work aims to provide stakeholders with assurance that the risk assessment remains valid.

Ongoing research will develop our understanding of how radioactive particles in sand beds are moved by waves, through collaborating with a university-led research consortium.