For the period 1952 to1976 discharges have mainly been estimated, and are considered to be relatively uncertain.
Are we moving in the right direction?
The discharges of technetium-99 from Sellafield have been reduced by approximately 90 per cent in the last eight years. The discharges have been reduced from 50-100 TBq per year during the period of 1997-2002, to under 10 TBq per year in 2005-2008. In 2008 discharges were 2.37 TBq. The British authorities authorized introduced new technology to reduce discharges of technetium-99 from Sellafield in 2003. The last untreated discharge of technetium-99 occurred in April 2003.