Nuclear Waste Reaches to Norway Fjord

A Norway January 7 newspaper account said that radioactive waste from Britain has been found in shrimp and seaweed taken from the mouth of a long fjord in an area 60 miles from Oslo.

Norway's Radiation Protection Board reported in December an eight-fold increase during 1997 in the radioactive element technetium in the waters off western Norway. It attributed the source to Britain's Sellafield nuclear reprocessing plant in that country's northwest. The plant reportedly reprocesses some 200 tons of nuclear material a year.

A board spokesperson sees the latest development as being connected with the Sellafield facility's being allowed in 1994 to increase emissions by a factor of 20. At the time, Norway and Ireland both lodged formal protests against Britain for allowing the increased emissions. The radiation in Norway's waters is not yet at dangerous levels, according to the report.