Norway: Environment Minister: We'll keep up the pressure on Sellafield

The Norway Post - Doorway to Norway

16. Januar 2002

Norwegian Environment Minister Boerge Brende has promised to keep
up the pressure to stop the radioactive emission from the British
Sellafield plant.

He said this at a protest conference at Stamsund, under the title
"Lofoten against Sellafield" on Tuesday, where the Norwegian
Fisheries Minister also took part.

-The British authorities say the emissions are not dangerous, but
they are apparently dangerous enough, since they don't want to
store the pollutants themselves. We don't want them either,
Brende stated.

Fishermen in Lofoten and other regions flew a black flag of
mourning in protest against the emisssions from Sellafield.

The British authorities claim that the radioactive emissions are
too small to become a health danger.

Division Director Per Strand from the Norwegian Radiation
Protection Authority says that based on the principle of "better
safe than sorry", the emissions should be stopped.

The main component, Technetium-99, is a relatively new pollutant
from Sellafield, and so far we do not know enough about how it
effects the environment, Strand says.

(NRK)

Rolleiv Solholm