Radiation incident at Faslane

from Sunday Herald, 19 October 2008

Two workers were exposed to excess radiation after equipment failure at the Faslane nuclear submarine base on the Clyde earlier this month, the Ministry of Defence (MoD) has confirmed.

The workers had to shut the doors on a radiation source by hand after a jammed wire prevented the usual closing mechanism from operating. The source was being used to x-ray pipes for flaws.

The workers were exposed to 1.1 millisieverts of radiation. Though that is just above the 1 mSv recommended annual limit for members of the public, it is within the 20 mSv annual limit for radiation workers.

The incident was reported to the government watchdog, the Health and Safety Executive, and ministers were briefed, as is usual with such incidents. But an MoD spokesman insisted that the health of the two workers had not been put at risk.

“They received very low doses, they didn’t need treatment and they were not referred to hospital,” he said. “They followed the contingency plans in place to close the doors.”

The incident didn’t involve any of the nuclear-powered submarines or the Trident nuclear weapons system, based at Faslane. Last month the Sunday Herald revealed that safety lapses at the base had reached a record high, with exactly 100 recorded between June 2006 and May 2007.