Rob Edwards

Alarm over lifting of safety ban on nuclear submarines

from The National, 07 January 2015

A secret decision by the Ministry of Defence (MoD) to end a safety ban preventing nuclear submarines from using two lochs on the west coast of Scotland has sparked alarm amongst local residents, politicians and campaigners. 

The National can reveal that Trident-armed and nuclear-powered submarines have returned to Loch Goil, off Loch Long on the Firth of Clyde, and are now able to return to Loch Ewe, off Poolewe in Wester Ross. Visits to these naval “operational berths” have not been allowed since May 2013. 

The ban was imposed by the MoD’s internal watchdog, the Defence Nuclear Safety Regulator, because a series of safety exercises had exposed flaws in emergency plans meant to protect the public from radiation fall-out in the event of an accident. Nuclear submarines are dubbed “floating Chernobyls” by critics, after the world’s worst nuclear accident in Ukraine in 1986.

But on Monday this week one of the UK’s four Vanguard-class submarines, which carry Trident nuclear weapons and are driven by nuclear reactors, was spotted sailing up Loch Long and into Loch Goil. According to eye-witnesses, it arrived under high security at 1pm, was turned around by tugs and submerged at 6pm.

The submarine resurfaced at 8am on Tuesday, and then left the loch 30 minutes later. It was photographed by a local resident, Katherine Alexander, who lives in a remote house on the east shore of Loch Goil close to the submarine berth and within the MoD’s officially-designated evacuation zone.

Book review: how to get rid of biological and nuclear weapons

from New Scientist, 09 December 2014

Barriers to Bioweapons: The challenges of expertise and organization for weapons development by Sonia Ben Ouagrham-Gormley, published by Cornell University Press for $39.95.

Unmaking the Bomb: A fissile material approach to nuclear disarmament and nonproliferation by Harold A. Feiveson, Alexander Glaser, Zia Mian and Frank N. von Hippel, published by MIT Press for $30/£20.95.

It is called Fogbank and it is a type of foam – toxic, explosive and highly flammable, and vital to the W76 nuclear warheads on Trident missiles. But the US government forgot how to make it.

Over the nine years to 2009, the US National Nuclear Security Administration spent $69 million trying to remember how. A previous plant had been dismantled, few records had been kept and staff had left. The wheel simply had to be reinvented.

The story of Fogbank, first reported in New Scientist in 2008, is highlighted by Sonia Ben Ouagrham-Gormley as an example of how easy it is for organisations to forget things. When it comes to weapons of mass destruction, she suggests, this is an advantage, because it makes controlling their proliferation easier.

Nuclear reactors too unreliable to keep the lights on, says report

from Sunday Herald, 14 December 2014

Nuclear power stations across the UK have been unexpectedly shut down 20 times a year because of faults, cracks, seaweed and other problems, sparking fears that they can’t keep the lights on. 

An analysis for local authorities says that 15 reactors have had 62 unplanned shutdowns in the last three years. They have been hit by electrical, boiler and valve defects, fires, storms, vibrations and the discovery of tiny reactor cracks.

The build-up of large amounts of seaweed has twice forced reactors at Torness in East Lothian to close, in May and November 2013. The seaweed clogs filters that are part of the plant’s vital seawater cooling system. 

The analysis was carried out by Edinburgh-based nuclear consultant, Pete Roche, for the 50-strong group of nuclear-free local authorities. The councils are calling for an urgent review of whether nuclear power can be relied on to provide enough power over the winter, and raising concerns about safety. 

The high rate of unplanned shutdowns “has to be of great concern to the public for our energy security over this winter and onwards,” said the group’s chair, Manchester Labour councillor Mark Hackett.

Revealed: 316 nuclear safety blunders, 71 fires and a drug problem at Faslane

from Sunday Herald, 26 October 2014

There has been a sharp rise in the number of safety blunders at the nuclear bomb and submarine bases on the Clyde, according to internal reports from the Ministry of Defence (MoD).

In the last five years there have been 316 “nuclear safety events”, 2,044 fire alarms and 71 fires at the Royal Navy’s controversial facilities at Faslane and Coulport near Helensburgh. There have also been over 3,000 “near miss” industrial accidents, a positive test for illegal drugs and a series of difficulties with wild animals.

The revelations have been described as “chilling” by the Scottish National Party’s leader at Westminster and defence spokesman, Angus Robertson MP. He is planning to raise them urgently in the House of Commons, and is demanding action from the MoD.

The new figures showed that nuclear safety breaches at the Clyde bases were “widespread”, he said. “Wherever nuclear weapons are concerned safety must be paramount. We need to know exactly what is being done to address these breaches and tighten procedures.”

The panoply of problems at the home of the UK’s Trident nuclear weapons system has been disclosed by the MoD’s last four annual health and safety reports covering 2009-10 to 2012-13. They were requested by the Sunday Herald under freedom of information law in January and released last week.

Revealed: two major new mishaps at Hunterston nuclear power station

from Sunday Herald, 12 October 2014

One of the reactors at the ageing Hunterston nuclear power station in North Ayrshire has been plagued by two serious new breakdowns, the Sunday Herald can reveal.

Two large gas circulators vital for cooling the reactor and preventing meltdown were badly damaged because someone mistakenly switched off the oil meant to lubricate them. And on Thursday the reactor had to be unexpectedly shut down after running for just four days because its turbine generator was shaking more than it should. 

These latest mishaps come after the discovery of two worrying new cracks in the reactor’s graphite bricks, as well as a rash of nuclear incidents across Scotland last week. A ship carrying radioactive waste caught fire and went adrift in the Moray Firth, there was a fire at the Dounreay nuclear complex in Caithness and excess emissions of radioactive tritium gas came under investigation at Chapelcross in Dumfries and Galloway. 

Critics say the Hunterston plant, which opened in 1976, is showing its age and question plans to keep it running until at least 2023. “Last week served up examples of pretty much everything that is wrong about nuclear power,” said Lang Banks, director of the environmental group, WWF Scotland.

“Even long after they've stopped producing their last bit of very expensive electricity, nuclear power leaves a hazardous and very expensive legacy. After the past week, anyone who thinks it has any role to play in Scotland's energy future should reconsider their position.”

More than 25,000 people will never go home because of Fukushima contamination

from Sunday Herald, 12 October 2014, from Fukushima

"I'm very, very sorry to my ancestors, my children and my grandchildren"

At least 25,000 people evacuated after the Fukushima nuclear accident in Japan will never be able to go home, the Sunday Herald can reveal.

A large swathe of land downwind of the four Fukushima Daiichi reactors smashed by a 15-metre tsunami in March 2011 is so contaminated by radioactivity that it will not be officially safe to return for more than a hundred years.

Tens of thousands more who have left their homes outside the most contaminated zone will choose never to return because of the dangers. One is Rumyko Kobayashi, a quietly spoken grandmother of nine, who had to leave her ancestral home in Tomioka.

“Because the radiation is so high, I can’t bring my grandchildren home and I do not want to live in a place where you can’t see your grandchildren,” she says.

With heart-rending dignity, Kobayashi confesses how strongly she feels about what she’s lost. “I am very, very sorry to my ancestors who lived there for a long time as a family, a chain of generations,” she says.

“I am very sorry to my children and grandchildren because they cannot come back to live in our cherished home. I feel guilty, as if it was me who blew up the nuclear power station.”

Losing your home to radioactivity

from Sunday Herald, 12 October 2014, from Fukushima

Shortly after 3.30 in the afternoon of 11 March 2011, Yukiteru Naka watched from the window of his gleaming new hilltop house in Tomioka, Japan, as a tsunami broke over the roofs of the Fukushima Daini nuclear power station a kilometre down the coast. As a nuclear engineer, he knew just how serious this could be.

Last Saturday he stood forlornly outside his empty dream home with his Geiger counter in his hand, admitting that he had no idea when he would ever be allowed to return. Although his house survived the huge wave because of its altitude, it was badly contaminated by the subsequent nuclear accident at the sister plant of Fukushima Daiichi, 10 kilometres to the north.

Radiation levels in his garden are now about three microSieverts an hour, 37 times higher than in Tokyo 200 kilometres away. “The house is is not locked, there is nothing there,” he says with a sad laugh. “I’ve lost the key.”

Naka’s home is in the Japanese government’s designated restricted zone, which means he is allowed to return briefly during the daytime, but not to stay overnight. Just across the road, is the more contaminated “no return” zone where residents won’t be allowed home.

He has been forced to leave his contaminated car in the garage and the barbeque he built on the grass, and relocate with his wife 130 kilometres away to the city of Koriyama. He has also had to move his nuclear engineering firm, which has been contracted to work in the Fukushima plants.

Near his house, the town of Tomioka is deserted, patrolled only by solitary ghost-like officials in masks and bright white radiation coveralls. The tsunami smashed the railway station, gutted shops and wrecked homes – all still unrepaired because they’re contaminated.

Fukushima reactors still leaking radioactivity

from Sunday Herald, 12 October 2014, from Fukushima

More than three and a half years after four nuclear reactors at Fukushima Daiichi on the east coast of Japan were devastated by an earthquake and tsunami, they still leak. Radioactivity is spewing into the air, leaching into the soil and seeping into the sea. 

The huge scale of the containment problems faced by the plants’ operator, TEPCO, are difficult to comprehend. Highly radioactive uranium fuel in three of the reactors melted down and wrecked the water-cooling systems essential for preventing overheating.

So in order to prevent renewed chain reactions triggering another disaster, TEPCO has to pour hundreds of tonnes of water over the fuel every day. The trouble is that this becomes very radioactive, and leaks out of the bottom and mixes with groundwater heading for the Pacific.

The water is collected, filtered to remove the worst of the contamination, and then stored in over 1,000 huge tanks and ponds on the site. To date, more that half a million tonnes of radioactive water have accumulated.

But not surprisingly, given the scale of the operations, there have been leaks. A series of accidental discharges were reported in March and April 2013, the largest being 120 tonnes.

Warning that MoD cost-cutting could cause radioactive road accident

Exclusive, 24 September 2014

Nuclear trucks that should have been scrapped more than a decade ago keep breaking down – and could cause a disaster on the roads.

A former senior safety official at the Ministry of Defence (MoD) has warned that an accident could trigger a fire and a leak of radioactivity.

Official documents have revealed that lorries that were scheduled to be retired in 2003 are still being used to transport dangerous and highly sensitive nuclear cargoes. Shipments of plutonium and uranium have been made between Britain’s nuclear bomb factories in Berkshire, and across England.

Plans to replace the trucks with new vehicles were dropped in favour of adapting existing warhead carriers, but there have been delays in implementing this solution.

According to an official MoD log of safety incidents, the 20-year-old “high security vehicles” have stayed in service and suffered a series of equipment defects since 2010. The warhead carriers meant to take over from them have also had problems, with a total of 70 nuclear convoy incidents recorded by the MoD between July 2007 and December 2012.

Fred Dawson, a radiation safety expert with the MoD for 31 years, pointed out that the incidents included fuel leaks, which were serious matters. “They have the potential to lead to a fire and the loss of the vehicle together with its cargo,” he said.

“This all smacks of a penny-pinching make-do-and-mend culture within the MoD’s nuclear programmes. It also demonstrates that the MoD is willing to put cost-saving before public safety.”

Staff shortages on nuclear submarines ‘put public at risk’

from the Daily Record, 22 September 2014

Serious staff shortages aboard nuclear submarines on the Clyde are putting the public at risk, a former senior safety official at the Ministry of Defence (MoD) is warning.

New figures reveal that more than one in ten posts are vacant across the UK’s entire reactor-driven submarine fleet. This includes three of the Vanguard boats that carry Trident nuclear warheads, plus six other Astute and Trafalgar class submarines. 

Shortages of suitably qualified staff have repeatedly been highlighted as a significant safety concern by the MoD’s internal nuclear safety regulator. But according to Fred Dawson, a radiation safety expert with the MoD for 31 years, “little if any progress has been made by MoD management in addressing the issue.”

He said: “This shows that the MoD is unwilling to pay enough to attract and retain staff in these safety critical posts. Cost savings are being put ahead of safety, and in doing so the MoD is putting both its own staff and the public at risk.”

Nuclear submarines, which pack people, high explosives and nuclear reactors into confined spaces, rely on a range of skilled staff for their safe operation. They can remain at sea for months on end carrying out sensitive and difficult military operations, often incommunicado.

Investigation launched into radioactive pollution at Dounreay

from Sunday Herald, 27 July 2014

An investigation has been launched after the discovery of radioactive pollution outside the Dounreay nuclear complex in Caithness,

Alpha radiation was detected in a sample of sludge from a drain upstream of the site on 10 July and reported to a sub-committee of the local stakeholder group on Wednesday evening. It was confirmed on Friday by the private consortium that is cleaning up Dounreay, DSRL.

According to the government watchdog, the Scottish Environment Protection Agency (Sepa), a “small quantity of radioactivity” had been found by DSRL. “The sample was taken from a manhole within a foul drain system, outwith and upstream of the Dounreay site,” said a Sepa spokeswoman. 

“Following the initial notification DSRL has been undertaking subsequent analysis work to help determine the source of the radioactivity. Sepa is in regular contact with DSRL, and they will continue to update us.”

Plans for dealing with nuclear accidents hidden by Highland Council

from Sunday Herald, 20 July 2014

Highland Council has been accused of “utter contempt” for local people after it suppressed plans meant to protect the public from nuclear accidents.

The council has blocked publication of reports detailing emergency arrangements for coping with radiation leaks from the Dounreay and Vulcan nuclear facilities in Caithness and from nuclear submarines berthed in Loch Ewe near Ullapool. It says it needs to “retain control” of the reports.

This is despite the fact that other local authorities with nuclear sites in their areas publish their emergency plans for everyone to read. The operators of Dounreay and other nuclear sites also make their plans publicly available.

Councils are required to draw up emergency plans for dealing with accidents at nuclear sites under government Radiation (Emergency Preparedness and Public Information) Regulations (REPPIR). The plans set out how people will be evacuated, anti-radiation pills distributed and contaminated food banned around the sites. 

Like other local authorities, Highland Council used to put its REPPIR reports in public libraries and publish them online. But late last year it quietly removed the reports covering Dounreay, Vulcan and Loch Ewe from its website and now refuses to release them.

37 security incidents at UK nuclear plants - the highest for three years

14 July 2014

There were 37 security breaches and incidents at nuclear power plants across the UK last year, according to the Civil Nuclear Police Authority (CNPA). 

That is the highest number in the last three years, and includes the loss or theft of electronic devices, the unauthorised disclosure of secret documents and the compromise of personal data.

CNPA provides heavily-armed police forces at eight nuclear power stations around the coast, as well as at three major nuclear facilities: Dounreay in Caithness, Sellafield in Cumbria and Harwell in Oxfordshire. Its mission is to “deter 
any attacker whose intent is the theft or sabotage of nuclear material whether static or in transit.” 

Its latest annual report, published on 10 July, reveals that there have been 96 “security breaches and security incidents” over the last three years: 34 in 2011-12, 25 in 2012-13 and 37 in 2013-14. Most of the incidents are categorised as “low level”, with no further details being given.

In 2013-14 there were two incidents recorded as “loss or theft of protectively marked electronic equipment, devices or paper documents from outside secured Civil Nuclear Constabulary premises”. Another two were said to involve “unauthorised disclosure through insecure transmission of protectively marked documents” (see table below).

‘Nightmare’ of nuclear waste shipments across Scotland

from Sunday Herald, 06 July 2014

A power company’s plan to change the rules so it can ship nuclear waste to and fro across Scotland’s central belt has been condemned as a “nightmare vision”.

The French nuclear energy firm, EDF Energy, is applying for new authorisations to allow radioactive waste to be transported by road between its two nuclear power stations at Hunterston in North Ayrshire and Torness in East Lothian.

The company wants the flexibility to pack medium-level waste from both stations into the same storage container to save money. But critics say this will mean that waste containers will be increasingly moved between the west and east coasts, increasing the risk of accidents.

Two applications for Hunterston and Torness, made by EDF Energy to the Scottish Environment Protection Agency (Sepa), are due to go out for public consultation this month. According to Sepa, they both include "the ability to receive radioactive waste from other EDF Energy power stations for the purposes of interim storage, loading of containers and onward transfer.”

Pete Roche, an energy consultant and former government radiation advisor based in Edinburgh, has sounded the alarm. “Transporting nuclear waste is always going to be a risk, so the more you transport it, the greater the danger,” he said.

Expert call for Scotland to have more control over energy policy

from Sunday Herald, 29 June 2014

A leading group of 16 academics and experts has made a powerful plea for Scotland to have much more control over its energy policy to escape Westminster’s backing for “bankrupt” nuclear power. 

Energy specialists from universities in Aberdeen, St Andrews, Edinburgh, Manchester, Cardiff and London have written a joint letter to the Sunday Herald arguing that Scotland should gain control over “a large portion” of the financial incentives for renewables energy schemes like wind power.

They are also urging the establishment of a Scottish energy regulator to help renewables by encouraging investment in local electricity grids. They condemn the plans for more energy devolution by Labour, LibDem and Conservative parties as “feeble”. 

But they say that the changes they are advocating can be made either under independence or increased devolution. “Scotland needs greater energy powers to escape from English advocacy of economically and politically bankrupt nuclear power and to counteract declining support from the UK government for Scottish priorities for renewable energy,” they argue (full letter below).

Their intervention has been enthusiastically welcomed by the Scottish government. “This is a devastating critique of UK energy policy from leading energy academics which blows a huge hole in the UK government’s energy policy,” said the energy minister, Fergus Ewing MSP.

US fired uranium weapons at Iraqi civilians in breach of guidelines, says report

from The Guardian, 19 June 2014

US forces fired depleted uranium (DU) weapons at civilian areas and troops in Iraq in breach of official advice meant to prevent “unnecessary suffering” in conflicts, says a new report.

Coordinates revealing where US jets and tanks fired nearly 10,000 DU rounds in Iraq during the war in 2003 have been obtained by the Dutch peace group, PAX. This is the first time that any US DU firing coordinates have been released, despite previous requests by the United Nations Environment Programme and the Iraqi government. 

According to PAX’s report, the new data show that many of the DU rounds were fired in or near populated areas of Iraq, including As Samawah, Nasiriyah and Basrah. At least 1,500 rounds were also aimed at troops, the group says.

This conflicts with legal advice from the US Air Force in 1975 suggesting that DU weapons should only be used against hard targets like tanks and armoured vehicles, the report says. This advice, designed to comply with international law by minimising deaths and injuries to urban populations and troops, was “largely ignored” by US forces, it argues.

A six-page memo by Major James Miles and Will Carroll from the international law division of USAF’s Office of the Judge Advocate General concluded in March 1975 that DU weapons would be legal. But it recommended imposing restrictions on how they were used.

“Use of this munition solely against personnel is prohibited if alternative weapons are available,” the memo suggested. This was for legal reasons “related to the prohibitions against unnecessary suffering and poison”.

Nuclear safety on the Clyde at risk from growing shortage of skilled staff

from Sunday Herald, 18 May 2014

The Ministry of Defence (MoD) is suffering a severe and worsening shortage of skilled nuclear engineers that could threaten the safety of nuclear weapons and submarines on the Clyde.

Official figures released by the MoD reveal that one in ten nuclear safety posts are now vacant - more than in each of the last two years. The MoD’s own safety watchdog has warned that the staffing crisis poses “a significant threat to the safe delivery of the defence nuclear programme”.

The revelations have been condemned as “utterly shocking” by the SNP’s Westminster defence spokesman, Angus Robertson MP. “To find out there are so many vacancies in critical nuclear positions is totally unacceptable,” he told the Sunday Herald.

“This is extremely dangerous, unsustainable and lays bare the reality of the risks of the shambolic MoD cuts agenda. The MoD must immediately explain, in parliament and to the Scottish Government, what it is doing to rectify this and when.”

Robertson has been told by the UK defence minister, Philip Dunne MP, that the MoD was short of 165 suitably qualified and experienced nuclear personnel on 31 March 2014. This compares to shortfalls of 133 in March 2013 and 153 in March 2012.

Masses of radioactive waste will leak from Cumbrian coastal dump, says Environment Agency

from The Guardian, 20 April 2014

Britain's nuclear dump is virtually certain to be eroded by rising sea levels and to contaminate the Cumbrian coast with large amounts of radioactive waste, according to an internal document released by the Environment Agency (EA).

The one million cubic metres of radioactive waste disposed of over the last 55 years by the civil and military nuclear industry at Drigg, near the Sellafield nuclear complex in West Cumbria, is going to start leaking onto the shoreline in “a few hundred to a few thousand years from now”, the document says. 

The EA is currently considering a plan by the companies that run Drigg to dispose of a further 800,000 cubic metres of waste there over the next 100 years. This will include radioactive debris from Britain’s nuclear power stations, nuclear submarines, nuclear weapons, hospitals and universities.

Environmentalists argue that continuing to use the site is “unethical, unsustainable and highly dangerous”. But this is rejected by Drigg’s operators, who describe the risks as “insignificant”.

The EA document, dated 9 January 2014, sets out the agency’s latest assessment of the risks of coastal erosion at Drigg. It was released by the EA this month in response to a request from The Guardian.

MoD report reveals over 260 safety incidents at Clyde nuclear bases

from Sunday Herald, 20 April 2014

Over 260 nuclear safety incidents have been reported at the Clyde naval bases in less than five years, according to an internal Ministry of Defence (MoD) report seen by the Sunday Herald. 

Three quarters of the incidents are blamed on human error, and are likely to include fires, leaks and procedural blunders. There have been “issues” with a system meant to protect an explosives store from lightning strikes as well as problems caused by staff and resource shortages.

The MoD has also revealed that it is planning a new conventional explosives handling facility at Coulport to deal with the growing number of nuclear submarines due to be based on the Clyde over the next few years.

The revelations on safety have been described as “chilling”, “shocking” and “simply unacceptable” by the Scottish National Party (SNP), which opposes nuclear weapons. But the MoD said it was “entirely misleading” to focus on the number of reported incidents.

An MoD report on its annual review of safety at the Faslane nuclear submarine base and the Coulport nuclear bomb store in Argyll has been released under freedom of information law. Dated September 2012, it discloses how many “nuclear safety events” have occurred in recent years.

Nuclear bomb companies given multi-million pound get-out on accidents

from Sunday Herald, 06 April 2014

Private companies hired to work at the Clyde nuclear bomb bases are being given a multi-million pound get-out by Westminster so they won’t have to pay compensation or clean-up costs after “potentially catastrophic” accidents. 

The Ministry of Defence (MoD) is planning to sign agreements with contractors at Faslane and Coulport that limit their financial liability in case of injuries, deaths, explosions, fires and radiation leaks to no more than £100,000. This will leave the vast majority of any costs – which could run into many millions of pounds - to be met by taxpayers.

The revelation has shocked politicians, experts and campaigners, who attacked the MoD for trying to hide what they were planning. “Nuclear operations are uninsurable,” said the Labour MP Paul Flynn, who has lodged a motion in the House of Commons opposing the MoD’s move. “Commerce reaps the profits and the public purse is looted to pay immeasurable costs.”

Faslane, on Gareloch near Helensburgh, is home to the UK’s four nuclear-powered submarines armed with Trident nuclear missiles, as well as a fleet of nuclear-powered and conventionally armed “hunter-killer” submarines. Coulport, nearby on Loch Long, is where around 200 nuclear warheads are kept.

According to the defence minister, Andrew Murrison, the Treasury has agreed to relieve contractors at the Clyde bases of the liability for accidents. Otherwise, he said, the contracts would become “untenable” because of the high costs involved.