Norway farmers sold nuclear sewage

OSLO, Norway -- Nuclear waste from a research reactor in Norway leaked into a city sewer for nine years after a pipeline mix-up, authorities said.

The Norwegian Radiation Protection Authority (NRPA) said on Tuesday there had been a pipe-line mix up and some of the sewage sludge was sold as fertiliser to farmers near Halden, in southeast Norway.

Officials said there had been no danger to human health from the low-level radioactive waste.

Sverre Hornkjoel, a Norwegian Radiation Protection Authority (NRPA) scientist, said cooling water from the 42-year-old reactor had ended up in the Halden sewers between 1991-1999 after the municipality tied the drainage to the city's sewerage system instead of leading it out to sea.

Norway has no nuclear power plants and no nuclear weapons,and the reactor was part of a research project operated by the Institute for Energy Technology (IFE).

"The municipality made the howler, but it is still IFE which is responsible," Hornkjoel said. "In principle, this is a serious incident, but the emissions were very small."

IFE spokesman Viktor Wikstroem said the cooling water had undergone tests before leaving the Halden reactor -- part of an international project to test fuel rods for nuclear reactors -- which showed emissions to be below the safety limit.

"Our annual emissions are 4,000 times lower than what you and I and everyone are exposed to each year," Wikstroem said. "It is the municipality which made the error."

Nuclear waste from the reactor's cooling water then ended up as sludge sold to farmers in the area who used it as fertiliser. The pipeline has now been correctly connected so that the waste ends up in the sea.

"It is frightening that IFE has so little control over its emissions," said Nils Boehmer, a nuclear physicist with the ecological organisation Bellona.

Boehmer said IFE was "cowardly" in trying to push the responsibility onto the municipality and should offer free radiation tests to farmers in the area rather than trying to play down what had happened.

Reuters contributed to this report.

Norway's Government
Norwegian Radiation Protection Authority

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