For years, scientists ordered chemical cocktails to be sealed in old oil drums and dropped from a boat off the East End.

The waste was from routine experiments at the station. Smaller amounts were poured straight into the sea.

The station says dumping stopped more than a year ago and radiation levels were far too low to harm humans or sea life.

Government gave permission for the practice, says a key scientist involved.

But an ex-employee, who revealed the dumping to The Royal Gazette , condemned the station.

"I asked them what they were doing and they wouldn't tell me,'' she said.

"It makes a joke of the research on Bermuda's inshore waters, for which they are funded by the public and other scientific organisations.

"It's hypocritical and its wrong. That's why I had to say something about it.'' Another former staff member said he raised concerns about the dumping "all the time'', but nothing happened.

"I was told: `Just get on with it, please. We're filling up and have no room to work'.

"They would generate, in the course of a year, about 100 gallons.

"There were a number of proposals to dispose of it via the US Navy which never worked out, so in the end it was disposed of.

"It was just a routine sort of thing. They used to do this two or three times a year. You had no idea what the level of the waste was.

"The people who had to do the disposal were always reluctant to do it.

"I guess no-one likes to foul their own nest.

"It sounds bad, but they had a gun against their head in terms of finance.

There wasn't a lot of money available to send it back to the US.

"It's like being constipated. You have to do something with the waste.'' Mr. Andy Mattox, safety officer at the Woods Hole marine laboratory in Massachusetts, said he was familiar with the kind of chemicals used in the Bio Station experiments.

Depending on their exact nature, dumping them was "not really a problem'' when it came to any effects on the environment.

The levels of radioactivity were usually so low that it was legal in the US to put the materials down the drain. Low levels of radioactivity were already present in nature, he said.

He was more concerned about any toxic chemicals that might have been in the mixture.

He confirmed such dumping would break regulations in the US, where the Bio Station is incorporated and where much of its funding comes from.

"These are not practices which would be acceptable in today's climate,'' Mr.

Mattox said. "They offend us from an environmental point of view.'' Director of the station Dr. Tony Knap was off the Island yesterday and unavailable for comment.

His deputy, Dr. Bob Jones, confirmed dumping had taken place after he was told The Royal Gazette had evidence from former employees.

The last dump trip was in November, 1992, he said.

Vials of radioactive chemicals were mixed in concrete, placed in oil drums and dumped in water more than 10,000 feet deep.

A small amount was poured into the sea, he said.

"It is in such low levels that it presents absolutely no problem of contamination of the environment of Bermuda or the ocean itself or any marine organism.

"There is no reason for the public to be concerned about this.'' Other institutions around the world had similar practices at the time, he said.

"I can't see that it would sully our reputation at all.'' Dr. Jones said he came to the station in July last year, after the dumping stopped.

The station was now stockpiling its waste in the hope of arranging disposal in the US at "great expense''.

The last scientist to oversee the dumping was Dr. Clay Cook, now working in Florida.

Dr. Cook said the waste included radioactive materials from the hospital and Bermuda College.

The dumping policy was already in place when he took over in 1985, he said. It had been approved by the environmental health department and by a Canadian advisor to Government.

When he left in December, 1992 he had urged station trustees to reconsider the dumping.

"I didn't know if we were violating any international agreements or not. I wasn't sure that was the best way to dispose of the material.'' He did not know if chemically toxic fluids had been used in experiments before he started work at the station. In his time, he said, "so-called environmentally safe'' alternatives had been used.

Dr. Cook added that with hindsight, it might have been an oversight not to tell the public about the dumping.

Dr. James Burnett-Herkes, permanent secretary at the Environment Ministry, could not immediately find records relating to the matter.

He is investigating today whether permission was granted.

The dumping might well have been approved, he said. "At first blush I don't have a real problem if it was handled the way they said it was handled.'' He said an international ban on dumping radioactive waste at sea, agreed last November, had not yet taken effect in Bermuda.

Bermuda was still covered by an agreement which came into effect in 1989 and allowed it to approve some dumping.

No application to dump had come from the Bio Station since then, he said. The station might have been given approval to dump the waste many years ago, he added.

The matter had then probably "slipped between the cracks'' and had not been formalised.