Abstract
THOROUGH precautions are being taken by the Ministry of Supply to ensure that the Thames water used at the Atomic Energy Research Establishment at Harwell is returned to the river free from risk of harmful radioactivity. These precautions are being adopted after close consultation between Harwell experts and experts of the Ministry of Health, the Metropolitan Water Board and the Thames Conservancy, and on the advice of the Medical Research Council‘s Research Committee on the Medical and Biological Applications of Nuclear Physics. A certain amount of radioactivity in drinking water can be tolerated by human beings, and the tolerances laid down by the Medical Research Council for the Thames water are such that the medical and biological effects due to the consumption of water during the life-span of human beings would be for all practical purposes negligible. Roughly one million gallons of water a day will be involved. The greater part will be used for the cooling of plant and ordinary domestic requirements at the Establishment. The remainder of the water will be used for research processes, some of them radioactive, and a carefully controlled separate water system will be installed to deal with it. The most highly active portion will be segregated and will not be returned to the river. The remainder will be delivered to storage tanks where it will be tested by medical officers for compliance with the agreed tolerances, treated for chemical impurities and then mixed with the domestic waste water before being discharged into the Thames at Sutton Courtenay.
Article PDF
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Disposal of Effluents from Harwell. Nature 161, 163 (1948). https://doi.org/10.1038/161163a0
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/161163a0