Radium Contaminated Land

The request was partially successful.

Dear Ministry of Defence,

Could you please provide the following information a list defence sites in the UK and overseas that have been or might have been contaminated with radium that have been disposed of since 1945. To provide details of radium disposals by on site burial, including amount of radioactivity activity, location and date since 1945.

I note from the RWMAC 2000 report “RWMAC's Advice to Ministers on The Ministry of Defence's Arrangements for Dealing with Radioactively Contaminated Land” that there is a database which holds this information making the information requested readily available readily available.

I believe my request falls under the Environmental Information Regulations.

Extracts from the recommendations of RWMAC's Advice to Ministers on “The Ministry of Defence's Arrangements for Dealing with Radioactively Contaminated Land

“MoD should be as clear as is reasonably possible about its contaminated land holdings, and should set up a database for this purpose (drawing on LQA findings and on previous site investigation records, including desk studies and other land quality data). At the time of finalising this report (June 2000), the Ministry indicated that it was in the process of developing such a database;”

“MoD should ensure, possibly in conjunction with other Government departments, that existing records of characterisation and remediation of its past and present landholdings are not lost”

Yours faithfully,

Fred WP Dawson

DE Sec-Group Mailbox,

Dear Mr Dawson

Thank you for your email of 18 October 2011 requesting information about
radium contamination.

Your request is being dealt with under the terms of the Environmental
Information Regulations 2004 and will be answered within twenty working
days. 

If you have any queries about this request do not hesitate to contact me.
Please remember to quote the reference number above in any future
communications.

Many thanks

Freedom of Information (FOI) Officer
DIO Secretariat

Defence
Infrastructure
Organisation
Kingston Road, Sutton Coldfield, West Midlands, B75 7RL
__________________________________________________________

DIO Sec-Group Mailbox (MULTIUSER),

1 Attachment

Dear Mr Dawson

 

Please find attached a response to your recent request for information.

 

Many thanks

 

Freedom of Information (FOI) Officer

DIO Secretariat

Defence

Infrastructure

Organisation

Kingston Road, Sutton Coldfield, West Midlands, B75 7RL

__________________________________________________________

 

Dear DIO Sec-Group Mailbox (MULTIUSER),

Thank you for your reply can you tell me which sites listed in your reply are

a. still contaminated with radium or

b. have radium disposed of by burial on site

c. free from radium contamination

Yours sincerely,

Fred WP Dawson

DIO Sec-Group Mailbox (MULTIUSER),

Dear Mr Dawson

 

Thank you for your email of 2 December 2011 requesting further
information about sites contaminated with radium.

 

Your request is being dealt with under the terms of the Environmental
Information Regulations 2004 and will be answered within twenty working
days. 

 

If you have any queries about this request do not hesitate to contact me.
Please remember to quote the reference number above in any future
communications.

 

Many thanks

 

Freedom of Information (FOI) Manager

DIO Secretariat

Defence

Infrastructure

Organisation

Kingston Road, Sutton Coldfield, West Midlands, B75 7RL

__________________________________________________________

 

DIO Sec-Group Mailbox (MULTIUSER),

1 Attachment

Dear Mr Dawson,
In response to your enquiry below, please see the attached.

Regards,

DIOSec-SecPBFOI1
DIO Secretariat

Defence
Infrastructure
Organisation
Kingston Road, Sutton Coldfield, West Midlands, B75 7RL
__________________________________________________________

Telephone: 0121 311 3763Fax: 0121 311 3809

Email: [email address] Website: www.mod.uk/DIO

show quoted sections

Dear DIO Sec-Group Mailbox (MULTIUSER),

Can you provide me with information that explains why the response the MOD made to me, failed to include Christmas Island which is identified in a Defence Estates Press release dated 7 December 2004 as being contaminated with Radium and why the information provided also fails to identify the site at Hillsea Lines Portsmouth where radium has been disposed of by burial.

http://www.whatdotheyknow.com/request/ra...

Yours sincerely,

Fred WP Dawson

DIO Sec-Group Mailbox (MULTIUSER),

Dear Mr Dawson

Thank you for your email below.

I can confirm that the letter sent to you dated 3 November 2011 did include a sentence on Christmas Island. The text was as follows:

"With regards to overseas sites, it is known that radium was present on Christmas Island primarily in the form of luminised dials associated with former military vehicles and equipment."

The above stated letter also provided the only consolidated list of sites held, where soil contaminated with radium has been identified. It was confirmed in this letter that due to the limitations of the Land Quality Assessment database we could not do an electronic search for every potentially contaminated site. The list comprised of those sites used to update the 2010 UK Radioactive Waste Inventory and provided to Poyry Energy Limited. As such the list did not contain details of sites that had previously been remediated to the standards of the day and in the case of Hillsea Lines, Portsmouth subsequently sold.

Many thanks

Freedom of Information (FOI) Manager

DIO Secretariat

Defence

Infrastructure

Organisation

Kingston Road, Sutton Coldfield, West Midlands, B75 7RL

__________________________________________________________

show quoted sections

Fred WP Dawson

Dear DIO Sec-Group Mailbox (MULTIUSER),

Thank for clarifying the position I will amend blog post accordingly

Yours sincerely,

Fred WP Dawson