A missing canister containing radioactive material was found at the Ispat steel mill in Cork harbour yesterday, during a visit by an inspector from the Radiological Protection Institute of Ireland.
The inspector carried out an independent check at the Irish Ispat plant in Cobh to allay public concern over the disappearance of the canister containing a small amount of radioactive material.
The canister was one of four held in a storeroom at the Haulbowline plant, which went on fire last Monday. Details of where it had been found were unclear last night.
"We wanted to make sure that everything is as we have been told," a spokeswoman for the RPII said.
The missing canister was used as a "checking source" to monitor radioactive levels in other instruments, and the institute was assured the levels were too low to be a health hazard.
The canister contained less radioactive material than that normally contained in a domestic smoke alarm, she said.
Radioactive levels in the missing canister were too low to require licensing under the Radiological Protection Act 1991 (Ionising Radiation Order 2000), but the three that were recovered from the storeroom should have been licensed under new regulations introduced last May.
These new regulations have reduced the acceptable limits of radiation by a factor of 10, said the RPII spokeswoman - from 100,000 to 10,000 becquerels. Anything with a limit in excess of 10,000 becquerels must be licensed.
The RPII prosecutes regularly for breaches of its regulations, the spokeswoman added - hospitals, dentists, universities and industrial users. She could not say, however, what action, if any, might be taken in the Ispat case.
Ispat's chief executive, Mr Gerry Gorman, was adamant the missing canister had posed no health risk. Less than 50 per cent of the scrap metal used by the company was sourced in Ireland.
"When you work with scrap metal, everything is not always above board. When you import scrap it is sometimes difficult to know where it has originated and everything must be carefully checked for radiation."
But the monitoring of radiocative material was so precise at Haulbowline, he insisted, that "even if you put in a piece of granite with natural radiation in it", it would show up. The three canisters above the legal limits did require licensing, he conceded.
In view of the "minute amounts" of radioactivity contained in the canisters, "Ispat understood that they were not licensable", according to an Ispat advertisement in the national press yesterday. Since the RPII had advised otherwise, however, "the company will address this immediately".