Revealed: 15 military sites contaminated by radioactivity

from The Guardian, 20 December 2011

At least 15 sites across the UK have been contaminated by radioactivity from Second World War military activities, according to new disclosures by the Ministry of Defence (MoD).

A dozen of the sites, which include current and former air and naval bases, have not been identified before by the MoD. Some are accessible by the public or being developed for homes or businesses, though the potential risks are unclear.

The contamination comes from radium that was used to coat the dials of aircraft and other equipment so that they could be seen in the dark. It was in scrap burnt and dumped in the 1940s and 1950s, and remains radioactive for thousands of years.

The contaminated sites include the old SAS headquarters at Stirling Lines in Hereford, a former naval air base near Portsmouth, a previous home to the Red Arrows in Gloucestershire and a former RAF base at Machrihanish on the Mull of Kintyre (see table below).

The MoD has revealed the list of sites in response to a series of freedom of information requests in the wake of the discovery of dangerous levels of radium contamination at Dalgety Bay in Fife. It was home to a busy Second World War air base.

In the last three months, 475 radioactive hotspots have been discovered on the foreshore near a public footpath and a popular sailing club. Several of the finds have been radioactive enough to cause skin burns, or to significantly increase cancer risks if swallowed by children.

The Scottish Environment Protection Agency, backed by the Scottish government, is now trying to force the MoD to pay for Dalgety Bay to be cleaned up. It has threatened to formally designate the foreshore as Britain’s first radioactively contaminated land unless the MoD comes up with a credible clean-up plan by the end of February.

But the MoD has so far been reluctant to make any commitment, partly because of the precedent it might set, experts say. Now it has revealed that there are a minimum of 12 previously unknown sites suffering “localised radium contaminated soil” due to “historical activities”.

These are in addition to Dalgety Bay, and two other sites in Carlisle and Stirling that have been reported before. An unspecified number of the sites are said by the MoD’s Defence Infrastructure Organisation to have been, or to be in the process of being, remediated.

“For the remainder the potential risk is being managed through the use of appropriate site controls in accordance with MoD policy,” said an MoD spokesman. As part of a programme to assess the legacy of contaminated land, reports on over 5,000 sites have been produced.

Fred Dawson, who worked for the MoD for 31 years before he left as head of the radiation protection policy team in 2009, told The Guardian that the MoD had a “far from complete understanding of the extent and significance of radium contamination on the defence estate.”

The issue had dropped down the MoD’s agenda because of budget cutbacks, he argued. “This is in part due to the resources needed to go through old files, and the fear of what liabilities might be thrown up.”

Sites not previously known to have been contaminated with radium

HMS Daedalus, near Portsmouth: former naval air base
Defence Aviation Repair Agency Gosport, Hampshire: former aircraft repair depot
RAF Henlow, Bedfordshire: air base
RAF Newton, Nottingham: former air base
RAF Little Rissington, Gloucestershire: air base and former home to Red Arrows
Stirling Lines, Hereford: former SAS headquarters
RAF Shawbury, Shrewsbury, Shropshire: air training centre
RNAS Anthorn, Cumbria: former naval air base
RAF Machrihanish, Mull of Kintyre: former air base
Defence Aviation Repair Agency Almondbank, Perth and Kinross: former aircraft repair depot
RM Condor, Arbroath, Angus: Royal Marines base
RAF Kinloss, Forres, Morayshire: air base

Sites previously known to have been contaminated with radium

Dalgety Bay, Fife: a former World War 2 aircraft base
Forthside, Stirling: a former army luminising depot
RAF Carlisle, Cumbria: a former military equipment deport

source: Ministry of Defence

Since this article was published, it has emerged that there is also evidence of radioactive contamination at RAF Long Marston, a former air base in Warwickshire. See here.

Comments

[Rob Edwards]

You could try asking Annington Homes, whom I'm told took over Stirling Lines from the Ministry of Defence.

[Mark Amies-Gardner]

I actually live on the old Sterling lines now, along with a few hundred other people... This is a bit of a shock! There any way to find more information out about this?

[David Swan]

there are 2 world war sites in East Lothian 1 at East Fortune and 1 at Drem that have had activity in the past to, one wonders could there be contamination here to. There were spitfire and other fighters based there and there were repair work done on them to.!!?

[Rob Edwards]

I have heard stories about this. Have you got any further information you could email to [email protected]?

[Alan Johnston]

Dear sir,
are you aware of the degree of contamination our American friends left in the Holy Loch on their departure.We were informed that it was safe as long as it remained undisturbed.For the last few months there has been an enormous amount of excavation work going on below the high water mark. No sign of any monitoring at all being carried out.