Rob Edwards

New snake discovered in Scotland

from Sunday Herald, 05 February 2012

Scotland has a new snake. The first firm evidence that the grass snake is now living in the wild north of the border has been uncovered by a naturalist, upsetting decades of conventional wisdom.

It has long been assumed that the grass snake, a non-poisonous native of England, had not colonised Scotland. A few kept as pets had escaped, but there was no proof that any lived here, or had spread north naturally.

But now Chris Cathrine, a member of the Clyde Amphibian and Reptile Group and director of the Caledonian Conservation company, has discovered grass snakes in Dumfries and Galloway. There have been three verified sightings of the animals since 2009 and three more possible sightings in the area, according to a study he has completed.

“This is very exciting because it’s the first incontrovertible proof that grass snakes are present in the wild in Scotland,” he said. Along with the adder, the common lizard and the slow worm, it brings the number of native Caledonian reptiles to four.

Grass snakes could have spread north from England, encouraged by the warmer temperatures triggered by climate change in recent years. Or they could have lived here undetected for a while.

Cathrine’s investigation started in 2010 after he saw a grass snake in a pond in Upper Nithsdale. “I was balanced on a raft of vegetation searching for great crested newt eggs when I flushed out the grass snake,” he recalled.

MoD misses more radiation at Dalgety bay

from Sunday Herald, 05 February 2012

The Ministry of Defence (MoD) has again missed hundreds of radioactive hotspots contaminating Dalgety Bay on the Firth of Forth, prompting accusations that it cannot be trusted to carry on monitoring.

The Sunday Herald can reveal that in the latest surveys of the Fife foreshore last month the MoD found and removed 83 radioactive particles. A survey of half the same area shortly afterwards by the Scottish Environment Protection Agency (Sepa) found and removed a further 228 particles.

The failure of the MoD to detect most of the contamination was described a “cause for concern” by Sepa. “This reinforces the need to have credible investigation plans in place,” said a Sepa spokeswoman.

In December the Sunday Herald reported that previous monitoring of Dalgety Bay by the MoD had missed 442 radioactive hotspots. If the MoD fails to come up with credible clean-up plans by the end of this month, Sepa has said it will formally designate the bay as Britain’s first radioactively contaminated land in an attempt to force the MoD to act.

Scottish nuclear dump plan dropped

from Sunday Herald, 05 February 2012

A £3.2 million project that could have led to Hunterston in North Ayrshire becoming a nuclear waste dump for the rest of Scotland has been abandoned in the wake of protests by local residents and environmentalists.

Investigations into a plan to bury large amounts of radioactive graphite underground on the site have been suspended by the UK government’s Nuclear Decommissioning Authority (NDA). Instead, the graphite waste will be stored in a huge engineered shed recently built at Hunterston.

Critics had feared that burying the graphite would have freed up space in the shed for waste from other nuclear sites across the country. They have welcomed the decision to drop the graphite burial project.

Scottish boats under fire for fishing far from home

from Sunday Herald, 29 January 2012

Scottish fishing boats are under fire for trawling seas far from home for catches of tuna, shark, swordfish, mackerel and sardines.

The Sunday Herald can reveal that at least five vessels registered in Scotland have been licensed to fish as far afield as the Indian Ocean and off the northwest African coast.

Along with boats from elsewhere in Europe, they are facing criticisms that they are plundering foreign seas, damaging local fishing industries and threatening fish stocks.

As fish stocks in European waters have declined, big fishing businesses have increasingly searched further afield for more lucrative and less depleted waters. Scottish fishermen, already in straightened circumstances, are also keen to exploit foreign waters in order to keep operating.

According to a new study for the conservation group, WWF, a third of the world’s ocean surface is now being heavily fished, ten times more than in the 1950s.

Over 700 vessels from European Union (EU) countries are now exploiting seas outwith the EU, mostly from Spain, France and Portugal. But they also include nine vessels registered in the UK, five of them in Scotland.

Plutonium reactor plan rejected

from The Guardian, 24 January 2012

A plan to build a plutonium-burning reactor at Sellafield in Cumbria, proposed by a US multinational and championed by some environmentalists, has been rejected by the UK government’s Nuclear Decommissioning Authority (NDA).

Internal emails seen by The Guardian reveal that the NDA regards the reactor technology as immature and commercially unproven. It would also create large amounts of plutonium-contaminated waste and increase the risk of terrorists acquiring nuclear weapons, the NDA says.

The reactor plan was announced by General Electric (GE) Hitachi in November as a way of converting the UK’s 82-tonne stockpile of plutonium at Sellafield into power. It was backed by The Guardian’s environmental commentator, George Monbiot.

But it now looks like the prospects of the company getting to build it in the UK are slight. Known as "Prism" (Power Reactor Innovative Small Modular) it is a new design of sodium-cooled fast reactor that is fuelled by plutonium.

In an email to GE on 29th November 2011, the NDA’s strategy and technology director, Dr Adrian Simper, said that the two organisations “have struggled to reach a clear agreement on the work necessary to demonstrate credibility, without which neither NDA nor government can consider Prism further in the development of our strategy.”

New coal plant could threaten nuclear safety, says power company

from Sunday Herald, 22 January 2012

The company that runs the nuclear reactors at Hunterston in North Ayrshire is warning that their safety could be jeopardised by plans to build a huge, new coal-fired power station next door.

EDF Energy says that the construction and operation of the controversial new plant could block the evacuation of staff and deprive its site of electricity and vital cooling water in an emergency. The French nuclear company is also worried that discharges from the coal plant could compromise reactor cooling systems.

EDF Energy has lodged and maintained a formal objection to an application by Ayrshire Power to build a £3 billion coal station at Hunterston. Ayrshire Power was set up by Peel Holdings, a property company that owns Clydeport, the operator of west coast ports including one at Hunterston.

Following rejection of the application by North Ayrshire Council in November, the Scottish Government has now confirmed that it will go to a public inquiry later this year. It is one of the most disputed planning applications in Scotland, sparking over 20,000 objections.

Colin Weir, EDF’s station director at Hunterston, told the government that a series of discussions with Ayrshire Power “have not yet been able to adequately demonstrate that there will be no unacceptable impact on the safety and operational efficiency of Hunterston”.