Radiation risksScotland demands U.K. govt. apology over radiation leak at MoD nuke facility
In 2012 the U.K. Ministry of Defense decided to refuel the nuclear reactor on board Britain’s oldest nuclear submarine, HMS Vanguard, after a test reactor operating at the Naval Reactor Test Establishment at Dounreay, Caithness, in Scotland was found to have a small internal leak of radiation. The test reactor had been shut down after the fault was detected, and both the independent Defense Nuclear Safety Regulator and the Scottish Environment Protection Agency (SEPA) had been informed. It now appears that SEPA did not share the information with the Scottish cabinet, or with Alex Salmond, the First Minister of Scotland. Salmond, in a scathing letter to British Prime Minister David Cameron, has demanded an apology from Camron for “disrespecting” the Scottish Parliament and the people of Scotland and for treating both in an “underhanded” manner by not sharing the information about the radiation leaks.
Alex Salmond, leader of the Scottish National Party and First Minister of Scotland, has demanded an apology from British Prime Minister David Cameron for failing to tell Scottish ministers about a radiation leak at a nuclear submarine test reactor.
Salmond said the U.K. government had “disrespected” Holyrood [the Scottish Parliament] and the people of Scotland not letting the Scottish government know about problem, which occurred almost two years ago.
The Guardian reports that Philip Hammond, the U.K. defense secretary, last Thursday revealed that Britain’s oldest nuclear submarine, HMS Vanguard, was to have its reactor refueled at a cost of £120 million after a test reactor operating in Scotland was found to have a small internal leak of radiation.
He told the House of Commons the work was being performed after “low levels of radioactivity were detected in a prototype core” at the Naval Reactor Test Establishment at Dounreay, Caithness, in 2012.
Hammond added that the test reactor had been shut down after the fault was detected and both the independent Defense Nuclear Safety Regulator and the Scottish Environment Protection Agency (SEPA) had been informed.
Richard Lochhead, the Scottish environment secretary, Richard Lochhead, was notified of the situation shortly before Hammond’s statement, the Scottish government said.
Salmond, in a letter to the prime minister conveying his “deep dismay,” accused Westminster of ignoring its responsibility for good communication under the Memorandum of Understanding on Devolution (MOU).
He wrote: “I recognize that, in reserved areas, your government must decide what it chooses to share with us, but on areas devolved to the Scottish parliament, you have an unarguable responsibility to share information with us.
“Clearly, by informing SEPA (although even that took until late summer 2012), the MoD [U.K. Ministry of Defense] recognized that the incidents impacted on environmental matters, yet specifically requested that the issue be kept on a strict need-to-know basis for security reasons.
“By ignoring the MOU in this way, your government has completely disrespected the Scottish parliament — and the people of Scotland — as well as the democratic processes of the whole United Kingdom.”
Salmond said the “lack of concern” shown by the U.K. government on the issue was “as underhand as it is disrespectful”.
He wrote: “As a government, we cannot tolerate this veil of Westminster secrecy being pulled over Scottish democracy and you must now offer an immediate explanation of why your government allowed this to happen, an apology for the disregard of established processes and a commitment that it will never happen again.”
A Ministry of Defense spokesman said: “The Scottish Environmental Protection Agency was not ordered to withhold information from the Scottish government and it is absolutely wrong to suggest otherwise.
“Having been told about the situation, SEPA themselves chose not to inform ministers based on their expert view that the local community and environment is not at risk.
“As we have consistently made clear, the announcement was about the decision to refuel HMS Vanguard, not the issue at Dounreay, where regulators judged the reactor continues to operate safely.”
Vernon Coaker, the shadow defense secretary, and Margaret Curran, the shadow Scottish secretary, have called for a parliamentary inquiry into the handling of the incident and the delay in making it public.
In a joint letter to James Arbuthnot MP, chair of the defense select committee, they said: “We believe there must be public confidence in the government to be open and transparent about these issues. This confidence has been damaged by the two-year delay in informing the public.
“There are still many unanswered questions. That is why we are requesting that the defense select committee undertakes an inquiry into the incident at Dounreay.
“We believe such an inquiry would not only shed light on what happened following the incident at Dounreay, but would also help to restore public confidence and trust.”
Am MoD source, responding to the first minister’s letter to the prime minister, told the Guardian: “Alex Salmond is playing politics with this, scaremongering and making mischief about something that SEPA themselves agreed wasn’t a safety risk. The contained radiation levels are way under permitted limits and negligible by civil nuclear comparisons.”
