Dalgety Bay
Background
Dalgety Bay is located on the north side of the Forth Estuary in Fife.
Radioactive material was first detected on a part of the foreshore at Dalgety Bay in 1990. Monitoring has been undertaken by both SEPA and the Ministry of Defence and periodically radioactive material has been removed. It is thought that the contamination originates from the residue of radium coated instrument panels from military aircraft incinerated and land-filled in the area at end of World War II.
The radium used by the MoD was primarily in luminescent paints. Radium based luminescent paint was typically made by mixing a radium salt, zinc sulphide and a carrier material (typically varnish or lacquer).
Recent history
Many surveys have been undertaken on the beach to determine the potential numbers of items present and possible implications for public health. SEPA has undertaken a number of recent monitoring and assessment exercises at Dalgety Bay and these can be viewed on the Dalgety Bay reports page on our website, this includes the 2011 September Dalgety Bay Assessment. 
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Below are data for the sources SEPA recovered from Dalgety Bay between September and 6 December 2011:
Current situation
The total number of particles that have now been recovered since the start of the monitoring period on 12 September is several hundred. Officers believe they have detected another source of significant radioactive content. The source, or sources, appear to be buried at depth and will require a specialist team and equipment to remove them. SEPA has advised the MoD of the find and has requested that the MoD support SEPA in recovering the source(s) so as to remove the significant hazard. If the sources were to be exposed through erosion and mobilisation over the winter period, they would pose a risk to the Dalgety Bay community.
On 7 November SEPA met with officials from the MoD, the Scottish Government, the Food Standards Agency, Fife Council, the Health Protection Agency, NHS Fife and the local community at an interim meeting of the Dalgety Bay Forum. At this meeting SEPA presented the results of its most recent round of monitoring and particle retrieval work which concluded that "there appears to be a number of caches of contamination which could be managed to prevent their release into the environment."
SEPA is keen that an appropriate long term remediation plan for Dalgety Bay is developed. However, in the absence of a suitable plan, SEPA may need to designate an area around the foreshore at Dalgety Bay as Radioactive Contaminated Land to ensure the public is suitably protected.
Further information
In this section of the website you can find information on: