Rob Edwards

Safety plans for nuclear submarine berths flawed, says MoD watchdog

from The Guardian, 31 March 2010

Nuclear submarines have been using berths around the British coast despite the revelation of serious doubts about the safety of people living nearby in a secret Ministry of Defence review, seen by the Guardian.

The MoD’s internal watchdog, the Defence Nuclear Safety Regulator (DNSR), condemned the safety plans drawn up by the Royal Navy to protect coastal communities from accidents as flawed, inaccurate and outdated.

The plans would fail to protect people from radioactive leaks from submarine reactors, significantly misstated the likelihood of a major accident, and in some places did not take account of the risk of collisions with cruise liners and commercial shipping, DNSR said.

The revelations have prompted calls from campaigners for a ban on submarines using the berths, and fears that ports risk “indefinite contamination” from accidents. The MoD said the problems have been “addressed” but gave no details of any measures taken.

British government under fire for US use of Diego Garcia

from Sunday Herald, 28 March 2010

The unfettered use of the British island of Diego Garcia by the American military is “disturbing” and ministers should be “less deferential” towards the US, says a cross- party group of MPs.

In a report published today, the House of Commons Foreign Affairs Committee criticises the British government for ceding control of the island in the Indian Ocean to the US, and demands a comprehensive review of the  arrangement.

The report comes as the US is planning to make another major military deployment at Diego Garcia. This summer, the USS Emory S. Land, which left a base in Italy in 2007 under a cloud, will arrive the island to start servicing the US submarine fleet.

Two weeks ago, the Sunday Herald revealed that 387 bunker buster bombs were being shipped to Diego Garcia by the US. Experts suggested that this might be in preparation for a strike against Iran’s controversial nuclear facilities.

Although the island is part of the British Indian Ocean Territory, it is used by the US as a military base under an agreement made in 1971. The agreement led to 2,000 native islanders being forcibly evicted to the Seychelles and Mauritius.

High risk of contamination at Motherwell site, says council report

from Sunday Herald, 28 March 2010

There is a “medium high risk” that land underneath a housing estate in Motherwell is contaminated with radioactivity and toxic metals, according to an expert report for North Lanarkshire Council.

The report reinforces residents’ fears that their health is being harmed by pollution from a wartime munitions factory that used to be on the site near Watling Street.

Earlier this month, the Sunday Herald revealed evidence that a clean-up of the site in the 1990s had left patches of contamination. The council has launched an investigation to check the safety of the area.

The first stage of the investigation was an assessment by consultants, WSP Environmental (WSPE), in Edinburgh. Its report, a copy of which has been passed to the Sunday Herald, suggests that there could be major problems.

“The site represents a medium-high risk with respect to contaminated land liability issues,” the report concludes. “A radiological risk may exist”, it says, from the disposal of caesium-137 and cobalt-60 from the manufacture of x-ray and radiation therapy machines in the past.

The Large Hadron Collider: another big turn on

briefing for Sunday Herald, 28 March 2010

On Tuesday, some will warn you, the world is at risk of being swallowed up by a black hole.  Not metaphorically, but literally, as one of the legendary matter-gobbling vortexes is created when the Large Hadron Collider is turned on.

CERN, the European Organisation for Nuclear Research, has announced that  the huge circular particle accelerator in Geneva is to be fully powered up on 30 March. It has been mostly out of commission since a helium leak caused by an overheating electrical connection forced it to close after just nine days of operation in September 2008.

But on Tuesday physicists are hoping to do what they’ve been wanting to do for decades: engineer a head-on collision between two tiny particles travelling at ludicrously high speeds. The process, though, is a bit hit and miss.

“Just lining the beams up is a challenge in itself,” said CERN’s director, Steve Myers. “It’s a bit like firing needles across the Atlantic and getting them to collide half way.”

The growing £13 billion trade that is threatening the world’s wildlife

from Raconteur supplement in The Times, 23 March 2010

It was not quite James Bond cast as 007 Dr Dolittle, but it was dangerous. When Tom Milliken infiltrated the criminals running Indonesia’s illegal trade in endangered sea turtles, he had to shave off his moustache and dye his black hair blond not to be recognised.

“I was personally horrified by my appearance,” he recalls. “But it was the only way I could discover how they do business and the extent of the trade.”

His low-budget deception worked, enabling him to document illegal stockpiles of more than 12 tonnes of hawksbill turtle shell, used for jewellery and ornaments. This prompted a crackdown on the industry and the subsequent collapse of the Indonesian market for turtle shells.

Mr Milliken, who now directs the East and Southern Africa office of TRAFFIC, the wildlife trade monitoring network, went undercover in the 1980s. He says that today he would not allow his staff to do what he did then because of “the potential for things to go horribly wrong”.

These days there may be less need for voluntary detective work and the risks which come with it, because official law enforcement agencies take wildlife crime more seriously than they used to. But the international trade in endangered species and their products certainly has not gone away; in fact, some evidence suggests it is getting worse.

After drugs and guns, illegal dealing in animal and plant products is said to be the world’s third largest criminal business. After the loss of natural habitat and the growing disruption caused by climate change, it is one of the biggest threats facing endangered species.

Demands for honesty over US use of Diego Garcia

from Sunday Herald, 14 February 2010

The Foreign Office is coming under mounting pressure to tell the truth about how the British island of Diego Garcia is used by the US to launch attacks on countries in the Middle East. 

Leading opposition politicians are demanding answers from UK ministers on the role played by the Indian Ocean atoll in previous attacks on Iraq and Afghanistan, and in any future strikes against Iran.

Last week, the Sunday Herald revealed that 387 bunker buster bombs were being shipped to Diego Garcia by the US. Some experts suggested that the move could be in preparation for a possible strike against Iran’s controversial nuclear facilities.

Although the island is part of the British Indian Ocean Territory, it is used by the US as a military base under an agreement made in 1971. The agreement led to 2,000 native islanders being forcibly evicted to the Seychelles and Mauritius.

Row over ‘deluded dinosaurs’ and green ‘looney tunes’

from Sunday Herald, 21 March 2010

A heated and colourful war of words has erupted over a new advertising campaign in which the Scottish government’s tourism agency, Visit Scotland, has teamed up with the low-budget airline, Ryanair, to promote cheap flights to Scottish cities.

Green groups have branded Ryanair a “deluded dinosaur” and accused Visit Scotland of irresponsibly boosting climate pollution. They claim that their joint promotion could end up breaching the Scottish government’s rules on cutting greenhouse gas emissions.

Ryanair, however, has hit back by accusing the greens of singing “looney tunes” and being “economic illiterates”. Their policies would lead to the loss of tens of thousands of jobs in the tourism industry, the airline claims.

Last week, Visit Scotland launched ‘perfect day’ adverts across 14 major newspapers in England and Ireland. They offer one-way Ryanair flights to Prestwick, Edinburgh and Aberdeen for as little as £6, excluding fees and charges.

Ryanair flights are promoted on Visit Scotland’s website, and the tourism agency’s logo appears on the airline’s website. “It’s easy to experience all that Scotland has to offer,” says one advert, encouraging people to plan a “perfect break”.

‘Catastrophe’ warning over dead deer

from Sunday Herald, 21 March 2010

Tens of thousands of deer could be facing death by starvation this spring, leaving gruesome piles of dead animals to be discovered in remote glens by walkers, warn deer experts.

The British Deer Society, a charity which promotes deer welfare and management, is predicting a “catastrophe” because Scotland’s long, snowy winter has deprived deer of vital food.

The society has also attacked the Scottish government’s deer agency for failing to clarify the law on “mercy killings” outside the hunting season. This could put stalkers who shoot starving deer to end their suffering at risk of prosecution.

Concern over the plight of Scotland’s one million deer is escalating. Unable to access food for months because of the deep snow cover, they may now be weakened, thin and vulnerable to the cold and wet.

“The ramblers are about to start arriving and they will find heaps of dead deer,” predicted John Bruce, a Scottish spokesman for the British Deer Society. “The deer will come down from the hills, find a quiet glen and then just lie down and expire.”

He pointed out that rain would penetrate deer coats and cool them down enough to finish them off. “If we have rain, we will have a catastrophe,” he told the Sunday Herald.

US bunker busters shipped to British island ‘for use against Iran’

from Sunday Herald, 14 March 2010

Hundreds of powerful US ‘bunker-buster’ bombs are being shipped from California to the British island of Diego Garcia in the Indian Ocean in preparation for a possible attack on Iran.

The Sunday Herald can reveal that the US government signed a contract in January this year to transport ten ammunition containers to the island. According to a cargo manifest from the US navy, this included 387 ‘Blu’ bombs used for blasting hardened or underground structures.

Experts say that they may be being put in place for an assault on Iran’s controversial nuclear facilities. There has long been speculation that the US military is preparing for such an attack, should diplomacy fail to persuade Iran not to make nuclear weapons.

Although Diego Garcia is part of the British Indian Ocean Territory, it is used by the US as a military base under an agreement made in 1971. The agreement led to 2,000 native islanders being forcibly evicted to the Seychelles and Mauritius.

Alarm over toxic military plant under Motherwell

from Sunday Herald, 14 March 2010

Public authorities have been accused of failing to protect people from an old wartime factory blamed for contamination and illness on a housing estate in Lanarkshire.

Homes for 400 people were built on a site near Watling Street in north Motherwell that used to house a huge military plant in the 1940s. There is evidence that it handled toxic metals, hazardous chemicals and radioactive materials.

But the plant was not mentioned in a series of environmental surveys in the 1980s and 1990s carried out for the government’s development agencies. Instead there were only vague references to an “engineering works”.

Reports released under freedom of information law show that attempts to clean up the site in 1993 and 1994 to make it ready for housing development left behind patches of contamination by arsenic, cadmium and other heavy metals in breach of safety limits. No surveys were done for radioactive pollution.

Residents from the area complain of severe headaches, nausea and diarrhoea, which they blame on contamination. They met with experts and lawyers last week and agreed to pursue legal action for the health problems they are suffering.

"There are so many serious unanswered questions about this site that people are suspicious,” said Elizabeth Craigmyle, a partner with BMK Wilson in Glasgow, which represents ten local families.

Health probe into contamination from wartime factory

from The Herald, 11 March 2010

An investigation is to be launched into allegations that toxic contamination from a secretive wartime factory in Lanarkshire is making local residents ill.

North Lanarkshire Council is planning to sample and monitor pollution near Watling Street in Motherwell. The area used to be the site of a munitions factory run by Metropolitan Vickers for the Ministry of Defence, and a waste dump.

Residents complain of severe headaches, nausea and diarrhoea. They are worried that they could be caused by heavy metal, radioactive and other contamination, and have hired a Glasgow law firm to represent them in pursuing legal action.

The lawyers, BMK Wilson, have assembled a team of experts, led by Robert Kalin, a professor of environmental engineering at Strathclyde University. They have also brought in the English lawyers, Des Collins and Danielle Holliday, who recently won a major court case against Corby Council on contamination at a former steelworks.

“Many residents are concerned that the ground underneath their homes may still be contaminated and that it is harming their health,” said Elizabeth Craigmyle a partner with BMK Wilson.

Sheriff under fire for wildlife outburst

from Sunday Herald, 07 March 2010

One of Scotland’s top sheriffs has come under pressure to quit his leading role in combating wildlife crime after allegedly telling a former police officer concerned about the soft sentences given to wildlife criminals to “get a life”.

Sheriff Kevin Drummond is claimed to have told a police conference on wildlife crime last month that offences against animals weren't even “on the second page” after serious crimes like robbery and assault.

His remarks left delegates, including wildlife crime investigators, shocked and bewildered. They said that Drummond was no longer fit to be involved in the Scottish government’s Partnership for Action against Wildlife Crime (PAW), and demanded that he go.

The row comes ahead of new government figures expected to show that the incidence of illegal poisoning of animals in Scotland reached a record high in 2009. The figures are due to be published by ministers in the next two weeks.

Drummond, who sits as a sheriff in the Scottish Borders, is chairman of PAW’s legislation, regulation and guidance subgroup. He has run mock trials for the government to help train police and procurator fiscals how to handle wildlife offences.

His remarks came at the end of a major wildlife crime conference at the Scottish Police College at Tulliallan on 17 February. Mark Rafferty, a former police wildlife investigator now with the Scottish Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, questioned whether wildlife offenders should be given tougher sentences.

New gas plant runs into opposition on pollution

from Sunday Herald, 07 March 2010

 

Plans for a new gas-fired power station in Scotland have run into major opposition from environmental groups concerned about the climate pollution it will produce.

Spanish-owned Scottish Power wants to replace the dirty old coal plant at Cockenzie near Edinburgh with a cleaner gas plant. But it will still emit millions of tonnes of the greenhouse gas, carbon dioxide, and could end up wasting vast amounts of heat.

Three major environmental groups have lodged objections to the plant, which is currently being considered by the Scottish government. It is not needed, they argue, and will conflict with ministers’ plans to “decarbonise” electricity generation.

“This proposal is just not good enough to be built in Scotland,” said Dr Richard Dixon, the director of WWF Scotland. “With our tough climate targets we cannot afford to be locking ourselves into new power stations that will be major carbon emitters for many years to come.”

Green watchdog urged to cut red tape for small hydro schemes

from Caledonian Mercury, 02 March 2010

Scotland’s environment watchdog has been accused of hampering the development of small-scale hydropower schemes by insisting on too much red tape.

According to the SNP MEP, Alyn Smith, the Scottish Environment Protection Agency (Sepa) imposes stricter rules than in England and Wales, preventing farmers and other rural business from installing green electricity schemes.

He is calling on Scottish ministers to relax the rules, so that it will be easier to get permission for small river schemes which generate less than five kilowatts, known as “pico-hydro”.

“It is frustrating that Sepa's interpretation of European Union legislation is currently discouraging development,” Smith said.