An SDLP MP has vowed to continue a campaign against the dumping of radioactive waste in the Irish Sea despite a report describing radiation levels as "so low as not to be of public concern".
The study, a joint project of the North's Department of the Environment (DOE) and UCD, examined the extent to which the marine environment of Strangford Lough was affected by radioactivity released from the nuclear reprocessing plant at Sellafield. It also assessed the radiological implications of any contamination on the public.
Mr Eddie McGrady, MP for South Down, said that he was not convinced by the study, which had admitted that traces of radiocaesium, plutonium and americum were detectable in samples taken from the lough.
A DOE spokesman, Mr Ken Ledgerwood, said the study outlined that caesium concentrations in Strangford Lough had peaked and were now in steady decline. "The report concludes that the radiation dose resulting from artificial radioactivity in Strangford Lough is of negligible radiological significance", he added.