RADIOACTIVE waste was dumped around the UK on a much larger scale than previously revealed, including at Beaufort's Dyke, the Firth of Clyde, and Firth of Forth.

Liverpool Bay, and possibly Morecambe Bay and the Humber Estuary were also involved, it was confirmed last night.

The dumping is to be examined by the National Radiological Protection Board, the Government announced.

The revelation of the extent of the dumping between 1940 and 1970 follows the Government's announcement earlier this month that two tonnes of low to intermediate-level radioactive material had been deposited in Beaufort's Dyke munitions trench off the Ayrshire coast during the 1950s - information that was revealed by chance by a Government scientist searching the Public Records Office as part of a research project.

The Scottish National Party last night demanded an urgent and full public inquiry into the consequences of the latest information on radioactive dumping and called for full and immediate radioactive monitoring of both the Beaufort's Dyke and North Queensferry areas.

Mr Alasdair Morgan, SNP MP for Galloway and Upper Nithsdale, said: ''These latest revelations highlight that the problem is much greater than we thought even a month ago. They pose serious questions about the level of waste which is lying, not just in Beaufort's Dyke, but around Scotland's shore.''

He added: ''This new information highlights the total failure of the previous Govern- ment to tackle the problem seriously. While I pay credit to the new Government for identifying this new waste, its answers reveal that we still know very little about the true extent of the dumping which has taken place, and the dangers the radioactivity currently presents.''

When the radioactive dumping in Beaufort's Dyke was disclosed at the beginning of this month, opposition politicians, fishermen's organisations, and environmental campaigners demanded further investigations from the Government on the extent of the dumping.

Scottish Secretary Donald Dewar denied vigorously that successive Governments had deliberately covered up evidence of the dumping.

Yesterday Mr Dewar said: ''In radiological terms, it would appear the quantities of materials involved were small but we are asking the independent National Radiological Protection Board to carry out an assessment using the information revealed by this documentation.''

He said the latest announcement was fulfilling the promise made earlier this month over Beaufort's Dyke dumping.

Agriculture Minister Jeff Rooker, whose department released the latest information on the issue, said the NRPB would be asked to see if anything further could be found.

Evidence of radioactive waste was found to have been dumped in 1957 at Cairnryan - a port used for the disposal of munitions to Beaufort's Dyke.

Ministry of Agriculture papers showed that this involved ''contaminated waste arising from an accident in 1957 with a closed caesium-137 source which leaked caesium powder'' and that the Scottish Office had referred to ''about one quarter-curie of activity''.

The second further incident at the same place was the dumping in 1976 of about 10,000 tonnes of rubble and soil from the demolition of Thorium Ltd, a company which extracted thorium from minerals and left a waste product containing ''enhanced levels of naturally radioactive material''.

Elsewhere, scrap from a Ferranti radioactive valve manufacturing unit was dumped by

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the firm between 1954 and 1957 in the Firth of Forth off north Queensferry. An estimate at the time put this at 7.5 milligrams of radium bromide at six monthly intervals.

In 1949 advice was given to UK Time Ltd to dispose of 35,000 luminised dials likely to have contained in total between 25 and 50mg radium. Papers suggested such dumping in the North Sea continued during the 1950s.

Evidence was uncovered of dumping by ICI Ltd of two anti-static devices at the explosives disposal site off the Isle of Arran before 1958.

In 1963, research revealed, material from the clear-up of a former radium factory at Balloch was dumped at Garroch Head on the Clyde.

''Departments have in addition identified instances when liquid wastes or sludge containing small amounts of radioactivity were dumped at sea through dispersion into the water column from ships,'' Mr Rooker continued.

These disposals were from the Naval dockyards at Chatham and Rosyth into the North Sea beyond the Thames estuary and the Firth of Forth respectively during the mid-late 1960s and the early 1970s.

Sludge from industrial sources containing enhanced natural radioactivity could also have been disposed of in the Liverpool Bay area and possibly Morecambe Bay and the Humber Estuary.

Friends of the Earth Scotland praised the Government for an effective records trawl but said the disclosures were ''disturbing.''

Mrs Ray Michie, of the Scottish Liberal Democrats, said: ''A further search of the archives has obviously yielded results. They should continue to look for more information that could be there.''