History of monitoring beaches around Dounreay, and some future work

摘要

Since the first finds of radioactive particles on beaches in north Caithness in the early 1980s, a programme of beach monitoring has been and continues to be undertaken by the United Kingdom Atomic Energy Authority, UKAEA. This programme has evolved over the years: gradually more intensive monitoring has been required by the site regulator, the Scottish Environmental Protection Agency ( SEPA), while UKAEA have managed the deployment of increasingly more sophisticated radiation detection technology to meet or exceed regulatory expectations. This paper provides an overview of the beach monitoring programmes, and summarises how many particles have been detected, where they have been found, and how radioactive they are. The large number of in situ measurements typically recorded during surveys and the large areas of beach sands monitored are illustrated by reference to survey data acquired in the first half of 2005. Finally, the implications of the detection of a small particle at a large public beach some 23 km east of the Dounreay site are briefly discussed, as is the nature of some future work related to this environmental legacy.