Rob Edwards

Nuclear plant in radioactive waste blunder

from Sunday Herald, 30 September 2012

Radioactive waste went astray because of a blunder by one of Scotland’s nuclear power stations at Torness in East Lothian, the Sunday Herald can reveal.

The revelation comes as the nuclear industry is proposing to transport significant amounts of potentially dangerous wastes across Scotland, and against the background of a steep rise in nuclear transport accidents.

It has prompted angry reactions from environmental groups, who accuse the industry of an “alarming foul-up”. They say that radioactive waste should be looked after where it is created, rather than being moved around the country.

The French operator of Torness, EDF Energy, has been reprimanded by the Scottish Environment Protection Agency (Sepa) for breaking the rules meant to ensure that radioactive waste is safely handled. It wrongly sent 28 oil drums containing 26 litres of radioactive sludge to be recycled at a plant near the Sellafield nuclear complex in Cumbria.

When this was discovered in April the waste had to be sent back to Torness, where it is still awaiting disposal. According to Sepa, EDF Energy was not authorised to dispose of such “oily sludges” at a low level waste repository in Cumbria.

Sharp rise in nuclear transport accidents

from Sunday Herald, 30 September 2012

The number of accidents transporting radioactive materials has risen sharply, prompting fears for public safety.

According to a new report from the UK government’s Health Protection Agency (HPA), there were 38 incidents reported in 2011, up from 30 in 2010. This is the second highest in the last six years, which have seen a total of 195 mishaps (see table below).

Eleven of the incidents last year involved radioactive fuel flasks from nuclear power stations, compared to eight the previous year, often due to loose bolts, faulty valves or other defects. Other problems befell consignments of nuclear industry waste, medical isotopes and other radioactive shipments.

In one instance in December a train carrying nuclear fuel flasks hit a tree on the line. In November a courier van carrying radioactive packages to a nuclear site was stopped by police who discovered that the driver had been disqualified from driving.

In October the surfaces of three high-level radioactive waste containers shipped abroad to an unspecified country were found to be contaminated in breach of permitted limits. In August 2011 46 waste oil drums triggered radiation alarms when they left a nuclear site.

Time’s historic cliff ‘under threat’ from waste pipe

from The Herald, 26 September 2012

It’s a cliff face that makes the mind “grow giddy by looking so far back into the abyss of time”, wrote the Scottish scientist, John Playfair, more than two centuries ago. But now time may be catching up with it.

Geologists say that a historic rock formation at Siccar Point near Cockburnspath on the Berwickshire coast is being threatened by a local vegetable producer’s plan to install a waste water pipeline nearby.

In the last month eminent experts and enthusiasts from around the world have bombarded Scottish Borders Council with 400 objections. The plan has been angrily condemned as “cultural vandalism” and likened to building a waste incinerator at Stonehenge.

The accusations are, however, dismissed by the company behind the plan, Drysdales, which complains it has been the victim of “mischievous misinformation”. The pipeline will, it says, have “no impact” on the historic site.

Siccar Point is one of the world’s most important geological sites, compared by some to the Grand Canyon in Arizona. It is where, on a boat trip with Playfair in 1788, the Scottish father of geology, James Hutton, discovered proof in the layers of rock that the world was millions of years old.

His theory of “deep time” was one of the key insights of the Scottish enlightenment, leading directly to how we now understand the earth. “It marks a key point in the history of human understanding of the planet which supports us,” said Professor Aubrey Manning, a distinguished conservationist and broadcaster at Edinburgh University.

Thousands injured by government cutbacks, warn experts

from Sunday Herald, 23 September 2012

Thousands more people are being killed or seriously injured at work because of drastic cutbacks at the UK government’s Health and Safety Executive (HSE), experts are warning.

An 80-page report by Stirling University due to be published tomorrow blames a steep rise in major workplace injuries on deep cuts in funding, staff, inspections and enforcement. Just one in 20 major injuries are now investigated by the HSE, and only one in 170 results in prosecution. 

Over the last five years the number of major and fatal injuries at work in the UK has jumped by 2,700 a year, the report says. In the same period, the proportion investigated by HSE has fallen from 8% to 5%, while those prosecuted dropped from 1% to 0.6% (see table below).

The HSE’s budget has been cut by 13% from £228 million in 2009-10 to £199 million in 2011-12, with further cuts planned over the next three years. Its staff numbers have been reduced 22% from 3,702 in 2010 to 2,889 in June this year.

As a result the HSE is becoming a “threadbare” agency, say the report’s authors, Professor Rory O’Neill and Professor Andrew Watterson, from Stirling University’s Occupational and Environmental Health Research Group. “Workplace safety inspections are now so infrequent it is unlikely most workers will ever encounter an inspector in a working lifetime,” they say.

Sites where seals shot kept secret in fear of protest

from Sunday Herald, 23 September 2012

The salmon farms where seals have been shot are being kept secret because the Scottish government fears that direct action by protestors trying to save the seals could put shooters at risk.

But this is angrily dismissed as “blatant scare-mongering” and a “ludicrous excuse” for official secrecy by animal welfare campaigners. They say they would act within the law, and would not do anything that would endanger fish farm workers.

“I would willingly put myself between a government-licensed killer and his intended victim, especially if that was a pregnant or nursing seal,” said David Scott from Sea Shepherd UK. “I would do no harm to the rifleman, nor would I break any laws in doing so - but I would protect the seal.”

Scottish ministers have licensed eight fish farming companies to shoot more than 300 seals since the start of 2011. Killing them is meant to be a last resort to prevent them from taking and eating salmon from underwater cages.

But the killing has faced fierce opposition from campaigners, who argue that it is cruel and unnecessary. Instead, seals can be stopped from taking fish by high-tension nets, they say.

Two beaches fail 36-year-old pollution safety limits

from Sunday Herald, 16 September 2012

Two of Scotland’s popular beaches have broken 36-year old pollution safety limits this summer, posing health dangers for swimmers, surfers and paddlers.

The Sunday Herald can reveal that Heads of Ayr in South Ayrshire and Stonehaven in Aberdeenshire will tomorrow be officially branded as failures for the 2012 bathing season by the Scottish Environment Protection Agency (Sepa).

Both bathing waters have recorded levels of faecal contamination in excess of safety levels agreed by the European Union in 1976. The contamination can cause ear and stomach infections and, in extreme cases, be fatal.

At Heads of Ayr, animal faeces washed off the shore during heavy rain were blamed for the contamination. According to Sepa, this had “possibly” been combined with pollution from sewage discharges.

At Stonehaven, Sepa said there had been a “pollution incident” as well as heavy rainfall. Two other beaches – Prestwick in South Ayrshire and Sandyhills on the Solway Firth – narrowly missed been classified as failures because of new rules which enable short-term pollution to be discounted if it is predicted and the public warned.

Although this year’s two official failures were fewer than last year’s four, the overall level of pollution in 2012 was significantly worse than in 2011. As many as 49 other bathing waters failed to meet the tighter guideline standard this year, compared to 39 last year (see table below).

Nuclear bomb factories confess to 50 fires

Exclusive, 13 September 2012

As many as 50 fires have broken out at Britain’s nuclear bomb factories in the last two years, according to the Atomic Weapons Establishment (AWE). 

The admission came in response to inquiries about two hitherto unpublicised fires at Aldermaston and Burghfield in Berkshire in April and March this year.

AWE is due to appear in court in November, charged with breaching health and safety rules in relation to a major fire at Aldermaston on 3 August 2010. It has also been required by government regulators to review its fire safety arrangements.

AWE’s sites at Aldermaston and Burghfield near Reading provide and maintain the nuclear warheads for Trident missiles, carried by Royal Naval submarines. AWE is managed for the Ministry of Defence by three private companies, Lockheed Martin and Jacobs Engineering Group from the US, along with the UK’s Serco. 

An insider tip-off that there had been a fire at Aldermaston on 12 April was confirmed by AWE. It was started by an overheated ventilation motor in a machine shop and was put out “within minutes”, AWE said - though the fire brigade had to be recalled two and a half hours later after “residual smoke” set off a fire alarm.

Exposed: Scotland’s 360 dirty polluters

for Sunday Herald, 09 September 2012 

Over 360 industrial sites across Scotland have been officially condemned for failing to control pollution by the Scottish government’s green watchdog.

The Scottish Environment Protection Agency (Sepa) has named and shamed waste dumps, fish farms, sewage works, scrap yards and many others for breaking pollution rules with leaks, spills, smells and a host of other mishaps. Scores of companies have breached emission limits for two or three years running.

Amongst those outed for their “poor” performances are the famous Scottish soup and jam company, Baxters, the huge Ineos petrochemical refinery at Grangemouth and the French-owned waste giant, Sita UK. Others include three well-known whisky distilleries - Glenfarclas, Glengoyne and Whyte & Mackay – three crematoria, an Edinburgh pharmaceutical factory and an organic brewery on the Black Isle (see tables below).

“This continuing catalogue of environmental recklessness shows that Sepa and the SNP government are asleep at the wheel,” said the Green MSP, Patrick Harvie. “Companies and organisations are getting away with entirely preventable failures.”

Scotland’s air, water and land were being ruined by businesses cutting corners, he told the Sunday Herald. He warned the government not to cave in to companies with poor pollution records lobbying for weaker regulation.

Ministers and industry should realise that that a healthy economy depends on a healthy environment, Harvie argued. “The trouble is the Scottish government doesn't give two hoots about protecting the environment.” 

Pollution fears as inspections cut by a third

for Sunday Herald, 09 September 2012

The number of industrial sites inspected by the Scottish Environment Protection Agency (Sepa) has been cut by a third in a year, prompting fears that pollution could be missed.

The number of fish farms, petrol stations, quarries, mineral plants, waste operations and other potentially polluting facilities checked by Sepa fell by 1,384 from 4,075 in 2010 to 2,691 in 2011.

Instead of being visited every year, some plants will now only be inspected every five years. This is seen by critics as part of the Scottish government’s “better regulation” drive aimed at cutting red tape and saving money.

The cutbacks were described as “dramatic” by Professor Andrew Watterson, who heads the Occupational and Environmental Health Research Group at the University of Stirling. “This must be a concern and a potential threat to public health,” he told the Sunday Herald.

“Sepa’s cuts in inspections and its re-categorisation of various activities as low risk may prove highly problematic and risky because it is difficult to see how it can be sure to maintain environmental protection.”