Radioactive particle count 'greater than thought'

Radioactive particles released from the Caithness plant in Scotland and dotted along the coastline of Sandside Bay in the 1960s are more frequent than expected, it has been claimed.

According to the Dounreay Particles Group, around 400 to 500 particles are spreading to the bay - six times more than was previously supposed.

However, a detailed report on the matter declared that there is a one in 1,000 chance of potentially dangerous ones emerging on the shoreline.

The chances of human contact was deemed to be even less, at one in 60 million.

Director of Dounreay Site Restoration Simon Middlemas explained that: "Without [the group's] expert scrutiny advice, we would not have been able to begin clearing up the seabed and so begin recovering the remnants of past practices."

The Dounreay nuclear power plant has been marred with controversy over the years, including missing uranium supplies and contamination and was closed in 2001.