Jan 16 - Herald, The; Glasgow (UK)

A nuclear waste dump on the Ayrshire coast is being examined by experts to find out what is in it, after an inventory of its contents was accidentally destroyed.

There is known to be about 6500 cubic metres of low-level waste, mostly rubble, from the now defunct Hunterston A power station.

It is buried in five pits on the foreshore next to the Hunterston site, in an area which was until recently open to the public.

Environmentalists have raised fears about the possible encroachment of sea water into the area as a result of global warming.

Water has already caused the problem about what is in the pits. The inventory documents were stored in a building and then damaged when water leaked in, and had to be destroyed.

A spare set, supposed to have been transferred to the Scottish Environmental Protection Agency by the Pollution Inspectorate, has gone missing.

A spokesman for the British Nuclear Group (formerly British Nuclear Fuels) said: "We are doing two lots of investigations: one is to find out exactly what is in the pits, and the other to determine what we should do with it. However we know it is in a separate category known as very low-level waste."

He said that the public had access to the area, but "it has now been fenced off because of the drilling equipment we have working there to take samples".