Radioactive Waste Dumped in Sea in ‘50s

After years of vehement denials, the government admitted it dumped radioactive waste in the Irish Sea in the 1950s. The low- to intermediate-level contaminated waste was discarded in a deep depression in the sea floor six miles off the coast of Scotland. “Ministers have recently been made aware that small quantities of . . . contaminated waste were dumped in the 1950s,” a spokesman for the government’s Scottish Office said. He was responding to a report in the Guardian newspaper that up to 2 tons of waste, in heavy metal drums encased in concrete, were disposed of with the Scottish Office’s authorization. “Prior to the discovery, ministers were not aware it had been dumped,” the spokesman said.