Monitoring of radioactive particles has been stepped up

Two radioactive particles were discovered on Sandside Beach on Thursday, bringing the total to 14 within the past six weeks - and 36 since 1984.

The owner of the beach, Geoffrey Minter, said that the current monitoring programme offers no public protection.

But regulators have insisted that it is completely safe.

Cleaned up

The Scottish Environment Protection Agency (Sepa) insists that the improved monthly monitoring scheme already in place protects the public from any significant risk.

The UK Atomic Energy Authority attributes the more frequent finds to its more sophisticated "groundhog" monitoring vehicle and a backlog of particles caused by access to the beach being denied for a period.

Mr Minter, who is suing the UKAEA for contaminating his beach, wants it to be closed while his land is cleaned up.

He said: "I think it is irresponsible to leave the beach open, with the public believing that the monitoring affords public protection.

We are able to detect more, weaker particles on the beach and recover them and that's got to be good news. Mark Liddiard Dounreay

"It does not afford public protection. It is like swotting a wasps' nest with a fly-swot once a month. It is not going to get rid of the problem."

But both UKAEA and Sepa insist that there is no danger to the public from the particles.

And Highland Council, which has a public access arrangement with Mr Minter, has no intention of closing the beach.

A UKAEA spokesman said the that the particles being found are 100 times below the level which represents a risk to health.

Dounreay spokesman Mark Liddiard said that good progress was being made with monitoring of the beach.

Grain of sand

He said: "We invested a considerable amount of research, along with the contractors who do the monitoring, to get the best available monitoring technique.

"Cleary we are now finding particles with the new equipment fairly quickly, which tends to suggest the monitoring is much better than it was before.

"We are able to detect more, weaker particles on the beach and recover them and that's got to be good news."

The particles found on the beach are specks of irradiated fuel which are similar in size to a grain of sand.

They are the result of former operations at the nuclear plant, which is being decommissioned, during the 1960s and 1970s.