high levels of plutonium has been found in sediments at the end of Sellafield nuclear discharge pipeline. It even exceeds plutonium contamination levels found in the sea at Russia's Novaya Zemlya nuclear weapons test site, according to Greenpeace. Sellafield which is operated by the state-owned British Nuclear Fuels ( bnfl ), pumps radioactive substances into the Irish Sea.

These radioactive substances travel west to Ireland and north along the west coast of Scotland and then passes into the North Sea. These substances are spreading along the coasts of western Europe and the Arctic.

Greenpeace is presenting sample data to the international ospar Commission on ocean pollution. The results would be discussed in order to stop discharges of radioactive waste into the sea. Two samples of sediment were analysed in laboratories in the uk and Germany which showed high levels of gamma emitting radioactive caesium-137 and plutonium.

In the last few weeks it has been identified that radioactive discharge pumped into the sea is making the seabed more contaminated than a Russian bomb site. This site is only a few kilometres off the English coast.