The operators of the Dounreay nuclear plant in Scotland were fined £140,000 in February 2007, for dumping radioactive waste at a landfill and releasing nuclear fragments into the sea over a 21 year period. The UK Atomic Energy Authority (UKAEA) pleaded guilty to four charges under the Radioactive Substances Act 1993, which included one charge of disposing solid radioactive waste at an on-site landfill site between 1963 and 1975, and a further three of allowing nuclear fuel particles to be released through drains into Pentland Firth between 1963 and 1984.
Wick Sheriff Court heard that six of the particles recovered after escaping from the pipes into the sea were considered "very dangerous" and investigators found that the radioactivity of some fragments in a drain were 26 times above the annual permitted dose for a member of the public. The charges were brought after a lengthy investigation by the Scottish Environment Protection Agency (SEPA), and the offences actually carried unlimited penalties. This could have resulted in fines worth millions of pounds to the UKAEA, who have a turnover of around £315 million and last year made a profit of £3.1 million. Ironically, the fine will ultimately be borne by the taxpayer, as the UKAEA is publicly funded.
Environmental campaigners have understandably reacted with dismay to the fine, and Lorraine Mann of Scotland Against Nuclear Dumping described the incident as "Probably one of the nastiest forms of discharge ever in the history of the nuclear industry in the UK, and the penalty is hardly even a slap on the wrist."
