The environmental impact of Sellafield is reducing, an annual study has found.
Discharges to the environment are well within permitted levels and the site's carbon footprint is decreasing, Sellafield Ltd's Monitoring our Environment report, 2021 concluded.
Now in its 50th year, the report provides information on discharges and disposals at the Sellafield site.
Martin Clough, Sellafield Ltd's head of environmental management, said:
Our purpose at Sellafield is to create a clean and safe environment for future generations.
Crucial to this is ensuring our activities have as low an impact on the environment as is reasonably possible.
We've been monitoring our environmental performance since 1972 for more than 50 years and over that time through our investments and focus we've seen a marked improvement over that time.
Our latest report confirms the impact of our discharges on the local environment and community remains low, and significantly below internationally agreed limits.
The report also covers the broader environmental areas of beach monitoring, groundwater investigations, details on our carbon footprint, and future effluent discharge projections.
We will continue to focus on achieving the highest standards across all of our environmental performance.
Sellafield Ltd undertakes a range of environmental monitoring both on the Sellafield site and around West Cumbria.
The 'Monitoring our Environment' report shows results from these activities and provides information on radiological impact and non-radioactive discharges and disposals.
It found Sellafield Ltd's carbon footprint continued to reduce in 2021, driven by reductions in electricity and steam usage on the Sellafield site.
The report also calculates estimated radiological doses to members of the public.
It concludes that exposure, even to the most exposed group, remains very low and much lower than the limit for exposure to radiation in the UK.
The report adds:
There were no instances in 2021 of non-compliance with the numerical limits of permits regulating discharges and disposals of radioactive wastes at Sellafield.
Radioactive discharges (aerial and liquid) were well below the permitted limits and were generally lower than those in 2020.
It goes on to predict that future discharges at Sellafield will fall after reprocessing operations were ended earlier this year.
