The Ministry of Defence has assured employees and residents that it has followed safety rules in dealing with "very minor" contamination by a radioactive substance at Borehamwood's Elstree Business Centre.

Concerns for the safety of workers and nearby residents arose after the new owner of the building, St Modwen Properties, publicly revealed last month that there was tritium radiation contamination in the vacuum physics building at the centre. St Modwen bought the currently unused building, along with others, from the Ministry of Defence (MoD) in February. But an MoD spokesman said this week that all statutory requirements concerning the safety of employees and the public had been followed, and that work at the building has been regulated by the Environment Agency, under the Radioactive Substances Act 1993.

He added: "During the time the building has been operating as a radioactive area, there have been no incidents necessitating Environment Agency notification."

According to the MoD, the degree of contamination is so small, reaching a maximum 200 becquerel per cubic centimetre, that the tritium contamination from an average cinema "exit" sign is five million times greater than that found on the site.

The MoD said the contaminated building was used for the production of neutron tubes, used since the 1950s for the Nucleur Weapons Programme.

The MoD, with no further need to produce the neutron tubes, sold the site, leased to Marconi Holdings Ltd, to St Modwen Properties, which was aware of the contamination when it made the purchase at auction.

The defence spokesman said workers involved in the current post-operational clean-up of the building were fully aware of safety requirements, and decontamination, to be carried out in accordance with statutory and Environment Agency requirements, was expected to be complete by 2009.

He added: "The local authority has been kept fully aware of the situation, as have all parties involved with the site."

June 12, 2002 13:30