Rob Edwards

Revealed: the manifold problems that plagued bomb factory fire

from The Guardian, 31 May 2011

Efforts to tackle a major fire at Britain's top secret nuclear weapons research site were plagued by poor communication, faulty fire hydrants, safety breaches and repeated confusion, according to an internal fire service report seen by the Guardian.

The official inquiry into the blaze last August at the Aldermaston Atomic Weapons Establishment by the Royal Berkshire fire and rescue service contains strong criticism of the nuclear plant's firefighting performance. There were "numerous problems" with the way the emergency was tackled, the report said. Aldermaston's on-duty emergency controller was "overwhelmed by the demands of the incident and unable to effectively provide the information required".

The fire started just after 9pm on 3 August when a solvent used in making explosives, methyl ethyl ketone, burst into flames. It burned for nearly nine hours overnight in a building within Aldermaston's explosives technology facility and it took 16 fire appliances and 68 firefighters to put it out.

The government's Health and Safety Executive is investigating whether to take legal action against Aldermaston. The results of the site's inquiry into the incident are due to be published in the next few weeks.

Berkshire fire service's "incident debrief" has been released in response to a request under freedom of information law. It said fire controllers discovered explosives were involved when they overheard a message in the background while they were on the phone.

Scotland’s nuclear bomb base to be privatised

from Sunday Herald, 29 May 2011

Private companies, led by the controversial US arms dealer, Lockheed Martin, are taking over the management of Britain’s top secret nuclear bomb base at Coulport on the Clyde, the Sunday Herald can reveal.

Defence ministers in Westminster have decided that the highly sensitive job of looking after more than 200 Trident nuclear warheads, and arming the Royal Navy’s submarines with them, should be handed over to a consortium of four multinational companies within the next year.

The decision has been condemned by the SNP, trade unionists and disarmament campaigners who are demanding an urgent rethink. It is a cost-saving, job-cutting “kick in the teeth to the work force” that will put nuclear safety at risk, they say.

Up to 200 Coulport workers were told last week that they will be seconded from the Ministry of Defence (MoD) to a newly formed private sector consortium called ABL. It brings together AWE, the group that runs the Aldermaston nuclear weapons factory in Berkshire; Babcock, the British engineering company; and the US-owned Lockheed Martin Strategic Systems UK.

AWE is itself a consortium involving Lockheed Martin; another big US firm, Jacobs Engineering; and the UK management privatisation company, Serco. According to the MoD’s detailed internal plan leaked to the Sunday Herald, ABL will be granted a contract to run Coulport for 15 years.

Fracking hell: a dangerous new way of drilling for gas is on its way to Scotland

from Sunday Herald, 29 May 2011

It goes by the ugly name of fracking, it could poison our water and it’s on its way to Scotland.

An Australian company is about to apply for permission to drill the country’s first exploratory well in a bid to exploit the shale gas that could be locked in the rocks deep beneath the earth.

Composite Energy, which was taken over the Australian multinational methane gas extraction firm, Dart Energy Limited, in February, wants to sink a £1 million test bore 2,000 metres deep at Airth near Falkirk before the end of the year.

If it finds what it hopes, full-scale fracking – or hydraulic fracturing (see below) - to extract the gas could follow. As well as opening up a whole new energy frontier in Scotland, this would unleash an unprecedented environmental conflict.

Environmental groups say that fracking can contaminate water supplies, and will greatly add to the pollution that scientists say is disrupting the climate. Shale gas, they say, should stay in the ground to help save the planet.

New gas plant launched to help renewables

from Technology Review, 27 May 2011

General Electric (GE) has announced that it has designed a gas-fired combined-cycle power plant that can start up rapidly. The goal is to help electricity grids adapt to the variability of renewable energy.

With a small but growing proportion of electricity in Europe being supplied by wind and solar power, grid operators need new ways to deal with fluctuations in supply. The supply from solar drops dramatically at night, while wind installations only provide power when the wind is blowing. GE's new plant can ramp up electricity generation at a rate of more than 50 megawatts a minute—twice the rate of current industry benchmarks. The plant can start from scratch in less than 30 minutes.

GE is testing a pilot plant at its facility in Greenville, South Carolina, but the plant won't come into operation any earlier than 2015.

UK reactors face Fukushima-like risks, warn industry experts

exclusive, 25 May 2011

British nuclear plants could be vulnerable to terrorist attacks, power failures, severe natural disasters and hydrogen explosions, according to evidence from industry experts submitted to the government’s review of nuclear safety after the Fukushima accident in Japan.

Submissions to the review, being conducted by the head of the newly-formed Office for Nuclear Regulation, Dr Mike Weightman, were published online last week but have since been withdrawn. They highlight a series of previously unpublicised concerns from nuclear insiders.

In one submission, Robert Quayle, who says that he was for 15 years a member of the emergency response team at the Sellafield nuclear complex in Cumbria, warns of the dangers of terrorists causing a power blackout. They could do this, he says, by disabling back-up power systems and downing pylons without breaching the site security fence.

That would mean that emergency diesel generators would have to be brought in from Manchester or Newcastle to keep vital safety systems going, which could take hours. According to Quayle, who is now a consultant to the engineering company, Babcock, this scenario was apparently discussed by engineering teams at Sellafield “some years ago”.

He concludes: “It was considered that there is the potential for severe damage that could readily and easily be caused, without gaining access to the secure areas, and the impact would not only be to the site but also the surrounding areas.”

U-turn over A9 crossing after blockade threat

from Caledonian Mercury, 23 May 2011

Walkers, cyclists and horse-riders who threatened to blockade the A9 in the Cairngorms have forced a government U-turn after the personal intervention of the First Minister, Alex Salmond.

Transport Scotland has previously refused to provide access for a historic route across the newly dualled carriageway at Crubenmore, just south of Newtonmore. But now it is planning to construct an underpass.

The government agency’s change of heart follows an intervention by Salmond during the election. He told campaigners he shared their concerns and, if re-elected, would instruct officials to go-ahead with a crossing.

Transport Scotland said it was now determining the feasibility of building an underpass with a view to bringing forward the necessary road orders. “It is expected this work could be completed by mid-August,” said a spokeswoman for the agency.

It may take another two years, though, until the crossing is actually built. Officials met with representatives of walking and horse-riding groups on Friday to discuss what was required.

RBS under fire over tar sands in Madagascar

from Sunday Herald, 22 May 2011

Holly Rakotondralambo is on a mission. She wants to save her native Madagascar from being ripped apart by multinational companies exploiting tar sands for oil.

So she is coming to Scotland this week to confront the bank she blames for backing big oil: the Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS), which is now 83% owned by the UK government.

“RBS is implicated in the environmental destruction facing Madagascar from tar sands mining,” she says. “We call on them to switch their investments away from these polluting fossil fuels and into renewable energy.”

RBS is alleged to have helped finance the French oil giant, Total, with more than £300 million over the last three years. Total has been exploring two areas of the African island thought to be rich in tar sands, Bemolanga and Tsimiroro in Melaky.

Big companies blasted as ‘climate laggards’

from Sunday Herald, 22 May 2011

Some of the world’s biggest and most famous companies have been blasted by environmentalists for failing to back tough targets to cut climate pollution.

BP, Microsoft and Volkswagen are all under fire for being “climate laggards”, as well as multinational corporations with major Scottish interests like Lafarge, Veolia and Maersk.

The companies are all criticised by the environmental group, Greenpeace, for failing to back a European target to cut climate emissions 30% by 2020. Many are linked to business groups campaigning against the 30% target, which is less ambitious than Scotland’s target of 42%.

“With its cutting-edge climate legislation and ambitious renewable energy targets, Scotland is poised to become Europe’s clean technology powerhouse,” said Ruth Davis, chief policy advisor at Greenpeace UK.

“It is shocking that companies such as BP, Lafarge, Microsoft and Veolia, all of whom have a strong presence in Scotland, are undermining its economic future by refusing to back new climate targets in Europe.”

UK nuclear power stations ‘at risk of flooding’

18 May 2011

Britain’s nuclear power stations could be at risk from flooding, according to a report today on the Fukushima nuclear accident by the government’s safety watchdog.

There is “potential for flooding to occur in the near vicinity of nuclear sites”, says the report from the newly formed Office for Nuclear Regulation (ONR), an agency of the Health and Safety Executive.

But it points out that the actual risk for each site is unknown “because the detailed specific likelihood and consequences of flooding have not been assessed.” The Environment Agency in England and Wales and the Scottish Environment Protection Agency, which assess flood risks, have recommended reviewing the need for more site-specific assessments.

The flood risks are revealed in an appendix of today’s report written by ONR’s chief, Dr Mike Weightman. He was asked by the energy secretary, Chris Huhne, to report on the implications for the UK of the accident at the Fukushima nuclear plant in Japan after the earthquake and tsunami on 11 March 2011.

Another appendix in Weightman’s report shows that flood defences at some of Britain’s nuclear plants are below, or close to, the heights of possible floods. It says that “limited overtopping is possible” at Dungeness B in Kent, and at Hinkley Point B in Somerset.

Trump accused of a campaign of intimidation against local residents

comment, 17 May 2011

The US property tycoon, Donald Trump, has been accused of orchestrating a campaign of intimidation against local residents to try and bulldoze through plans for a £750 million golf resort at Menie on the Aberdeenshire coast.

A new report by the land reform campaigner and author, Andy Wightman, details a series of alleged incidents in which Trump has moved against residents, including land grabs, threats of court action and damage to private property. Trump's staff have “sneered and laughed” at local people, says Wightman.

“The effect of this upon the affected families has been traumatic and their right to live in peace has been violated by constant threats and intimidation,” he concludes. “The fact that the local council and the Scottish government did nothing to stop this happening is to their eternal shame.”

Wightman also accuses Trump of having a “hot line” to Grampian police, who have been called out to the Menie estate 30 times since planning permission was granted in December 2008. He criticises Aberdeen newspapers, the Press and Journal and the Evening Express, for acting as a “propaganda organ” for Trump.

Andy Wightman's report and background documents are available on his website. There is also a revealing video of Trump in action here.

Hundreds of thousands of suicides blamed on big company farming

from Sunday Herald, 15 May 2011
Pastapur, India

Big business agriculture promoted by western corporations is to blame for up to a quarter of a million farmers committing suicide over the last ten years, according to community leaders in India.

Poor farmers are forced to take out big loans to buy expensive pesticides and fertilisers, and to dig wells for the increasing amounts of water they need. But when their crops fail, or their wells dry up, they fall into debt - and many thousands kill themselves out of desperation.

That is the bleak picture painted by P.V. Satheesh, the director of the Deccan Development Society, which supports community farming in one of the poorest parts of rural India. Sitting barefoot with his laptop in the shade outside his house in the village of Pastapur, in the Zaheerabad region of Andhra Pradesh, he gets angry about what’s happening.

Farmers are “misled” into believing the promise that the high-input, chemical-intensive, single-crop agriculture of the so-called ‘green revolution’ is their salvation, he says. So when it fails, they end up trapped in a debt spiral that too often leads to despair and suicide.

“Those that say that the green revolution will save the world should come and see the hundreds of thousands who have committed suicide in India," he warns. “The green revolution is a downhill slide into disaster.”

Working for better health for workers

from HESAMag, summer 2011

Yuki Hussein is crying. She plucks paper towels from the box on the clinic table and dabs her eyes. “It’s really hard,” she keeps saying.

“I’m sure that nothing is going to change. They are just going to carry on making my life miserable. I just want some sort of way out of the place, but it’s really hard.”

Yuki, a 20-year old student brought from Somalia to England for a new life by her uncle, sounds desperate. She has been off work suffering from stress and vomiting for the last two weeks.

She has come to one of the regular clinics run at doctors’ surgeries by the Sheffield Occupational Health Advisory Service (SOHAS) in northern England. And she is pouring her heart out, pleading for help. 

She is just one of over 1,000 workers with problems seen every year by SOHAS, a groundbreaking project that has won plaudits for its pioneering work in combating occupational ill-health.

Yuki is employed by a nursing home near Sheffield, and asked for shifts that would enable her to keep attending college in the evening. But, despite an agreement to that effect, she has been repeatedly put down for shifts that she can’t do, she says.

Nuclear submarine suffers another serious mishap

from Sunday Herald, 08 May 2011

The Royal Navy’s latest £1.2 billion nuclear submarine, HMS Astute, has been towed back to base after a malfunction which could have killed the entire crew, the Sunday Herald can reveal.

The high-tech stealth vessel was taken to the Faslane naval base on the Clyde late on Friday when it suffered “a technical issue with hydraulics”, according to a Ministry of Defence (MoD) source.

“This needs to be fixed to make sure it can dive properly,” the source said. “It could take days, or it could take weeks.”

Experts say that the boat’s hydroplanes, which enable it to dive or surface, are hydraulically controlled. If they fail, the boat could be lost, along with its entire crew of 98.

The ill-fated HMS Astute is infamous for being the scene of a fatal shooting a month ago when it was docked in Southampton, and for accidentally running aground off the Isle of Skye last October. The boat has been plagued with a series of other mishaps, including a fire, being hit by falling ramp and problems with its toilets.

The Scottish Greens: a disappointment, but not a disaster

from Sunday Herald, 8 May 2011

As the sun went down on Friday, the newly re-elected Green MSP, Patrick Harvie, sat sharp-suited and sleepless on a concrete bench outside the Scottish Parliament and tried to come to terms with the last 36 hours.

After years of election planning, weeks of ceaseless campaigning and a dizzying blur of media appearances, the Scottish Greens had ended up exactly where they began: with just two MSPs, Harvie himself in Glasgow and Alison Johnstone in Lothian in place of Robin Harper.

As many as six other colleagues from around the rest of Scotland never made it, despite winning an overall total of 87,060 votes – 4.4% of the regional list vote. The hope, born of opinion polls, that they might beat the Liberal Democrats into fourth place after the SNP, Labour and the Conservatives was dashed.

“It’s a disappointment, but not a disaster,” said Harvie. “We weren’t wiped out. We hung on by our fingernails.”

The Greens were the only party, as well as the SNP, to increase their share of the vote. But the increase was tiny, just 0.3 of a percentage point, and not enough to send any additional Greens to Holyrood.