Rob Edwards

Exposed: the PFI sewage scandal

from Sunday Herald, 27 March 2011

A massive £4.8 billion of public money is being paid to multinational corporations to run sewage works that are plagued with breakdowns, pollution and pongs, an investigation by the Sunday Herald has revealed.

Internal reports from Scottish Water lay bare for the first time the scandal of the sewage contracts signed with private companies under the Private Finance Initiative (PFI) backed by Labour and Conservative governments.

The problems at PFI sewage plants across Scotland have been so serious and intractable that Scottish Water has been pushing to take them back into public ownership. It has also been forced to pay out over £100 million extra to try and rectify some of the faults.

Yet communities around the country still have to endure nauseating smells, and many feel that they have been palmed off. Experts say their complaints are justified.

PFI was introduced as a way of trying to build public projects using private money. In the late 1990s nine PFI contracts were signed with private companies to build, refurbish and run 21 sewage plants across Scotland, dealing with half of the nation’s human waste.

According to Scottish Water documents, the sewage plants they inherited when they formed in 2002 cost nearly £600 million in capital costs. Contracts to run them cover periods of between 25 and 40 years and are costing around £130 million a year, giving an overall cost to the public purse of £4.8 billion.

Peregrines put under 24/7 guard

from Sunday Herald, 27 March 2011

They are fierce, they are famed as the fastest creatures on earth, and now they are under 24/7 surveillance.

A pair of peregrine falcons nesting at the Falls of Clyde nature reserve in New Lanark has been put under constant guard to protect their eggs from thieves, and their chicks from human predators.

The stakeout is being launched this weekend by the Scottish Wildlife Trust, as the first eggs have been laid. A team of 30 volunteers will maintain a round-the-clock watch on the nest to make sure it is not disturbed.

According to Tom Hall, the trust’s Peregrine Protection Officer, the birds faced a real threat. Last year a wildlife criminal was caught in Birmingham airport attempting to smuggle peregrine eggs abroad, he said.

“Thankfully the stolen eggs were saved, and Falls of Clyde eventually became the home of three of the chicks to hatch from them,” he added. “For the next three months, our peregrine nest will never be without a pair of vigilant eyes watching over it.”

UK nuclear power plans facing cancer court action

from The Guardian, 25 March 2011

The government is being taken to court in a bid to derail its plans for a programme of new nuclear power stations because of fears that leaking radiation will give children cancer.

A 24-year-old community worker from Lancaster has won legal aid to launch an unprecedented High Court action against Chris Huhne, the Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change. Lawyers claim the action could delay, or even stop, the nuclear programme.

Rory Walker, who lives close to Heysham where new reactors are planned, is worried about having children who could suffer an increased risk of leukaemia. His court challenge is backed by radiation experts and is being pursued by one of Britain’s largest law firms, Irwin Mitchell.

“It is folly beyond belief, and almost genocidal, to build new nuclear power stations,” he told The Guardian. “Nuclear power is unsafe, uneconomic and a dangerous distraction.”

Walker’s decision to go to court long predates the Fukushima nuclear accident, though it has reinforced his fears. “No-one would want to live in a place where kids grow up with leukaemia and mothers have still-born children,” he said.

“My concern is the effect of radiation emissions on myself and my community and the potentially long-lasting impact of radiation on people like myself wanting to start a family.”

Walker, an active member of the Heysham Anti Nuclear Alliance, works on a project to help local people grow more food on a community allotment. Under legal aid rules, he has agreed to contribute £45 a month – 10% of his income – towards the cost of the legal action.

Evidence from government-sponsored studies in Germany has suggested that young children who live close to nuclear power stations suffer twice as many leukaemias and other cancers as other children. The studies, known as KiKK (Kinderkrebs in der Umgebung von KernKraftwerken), have prompted an investigation by the UK Department of Health, the results of which were originally due to be published before the end of last year, but have been delayed.

Revealed: safety blunders at British nuclear plant

from The Guardian, 22 March 2011

EDF Energy, the company that runs Britain's nuclear power stations, has been reprimanded by government inspectors after a series of safety blunders at reactors in Scotland.

Two reactors at Torness in East Lothian have suffered failures in electricity supplies, several “unplanned shutdowns”, and a seaweed blockage. It was the loss of power caused by the earthquake and tsunami that triggered the still unfolding nuclear disaster at Fukushima in Japan.

The revelations have reignited concerns about the safety of Britain's nuclear stations. French-owned EDF Energy, admitted that it had not followed the correct procedures, but insisted that there had been no danger to the public.

A report posted online by the UK government’s Nuclear Installations Inspectorate (NII) discloses that there have been two significant safety “events” at Torness in September last year. “Correct operational procedures appear not have been observed,” says the report.

In one incident an equipment malfunction cut off the electricity supplied to a gas circulator. Gas circulators are critical components because they ensure that air is kept moving to cool reactor fuel and prevent it from overheating.

Revealed: the MoD’s secret safety ban on nuclear submarines

from Sunday Herald, 06 March 2011

The Ministry of Defence (MoD) has secretly banned stricken nuclear submarines from berthing in a Highland loch because the public would be at risk from radiation leaks, the Sunday Herald can reveal.

Loch Ewe, on the northwest coast near Ullapool, is meant to be a haven for the Royal Navy’s nuclear-powered submarines if they have an accident. But internal MoD documents disclose that its use has been officially suspended for the last three years because emergency exercises betrayed a series of major flaws in safety arrangements.

The revelation has prompted accusations that the defence minister, Peter Luff MP, misled the UK parliament when he described Loch Ewe as an “operational berth” after the nuclear submarine, HMS Astute, was grounded off the Isle of Skye in October.

Loch Ewe has long been one of several sites around the UK designated by the MoD as harbours for nuclear submarines. It has two berths, one by a buoy in the loch and the other at a jetty near the village of Aultbea, where there is a naval fuel depot.

The MoD ran two exercises codenamed Highport to test Loch Ewe’s emergency arrangements in 2005 and 2008. Official post-mortems, just released under freedom of information law, show that they were plagued with “significant difficulties”.

UK submarine reactors prone to accidents, warns MoD safety expert

from The Guardian, 10 March 2011

The reactors that power Britain’s naval submarines are “potentially vulnerable” to fatal nuclear accidents because they fail to meet modern safety standards, according to a heavily censored report declassified by the Ministry of Defence (MoD).

The MoD’s senior nuclear safety expert is warning that the safety of submarine reactors compares “poorly” with that of nuclear power stations, and there could be dangerous leaks of radioactivity. There was also a risk of “multiple fatalities” from submarines failing to surface, he says.

Yet the reactors are currently being installed in a new £10 billion fleet of Astute submarines. And they are still under consideration for the submarines due to replace those that carry Trident nuclear missiles from 2028.

The report, released under freedom of information law and passed to Channel 4 News, also reveals that arguments over the reactor designs have delayed decisions on replacing Trident by 18 months, and added over £260 million to the bill.

The report is a submission made to the Defence Board, a senior decision-making body within the MoD, in November 2009 about the status of the plans to replace Trident submarines. It includes a damning assessment of the safety of current submarine reactors by the MoD’s senior nuclear safety regulator, Commodore Andrew McFarlane.

Angry access protestors ‘will block A9’

from Sunday Herald, 06 March 2011

Countryside campaigners angry at being barred from a historic route across the A9 in the Cairngorms are planning an escalating series of protests that will blockade the road and delay motorists.

Unless the government’s Transport Scotland digs a tunnel or builds a bridge at Crubenmore, just south of Newtonmore, it will have “blood on its hands” because people will be killed in accidents attempting to cross a new dual carriageway, they warn.

Walkers, cyclists and horse riders are demanding that politicians commit to constructing a crossing in the next few weeks. Otherwise, they say that on 20 April they will launch a summer of protest walks along the A9 that will cause lengthening delays to traffic.

“If our protests are unsuccessful, I am quite prepared to drive up and down the A9 roadworks all summer with my horse and carriage to show my contempt,” said Ruaridh Ormiston, who runs Newtonmore Riding Centre.

He is furious that dualling the A9 will prevent him from taking pony-trekkers along one of the old military roads built by General Wade to control the Jacobites in the early 1700s. The route is also popular with walkers, cyclists and local people.