Rob Edwards

Edited extract from Nuclear Secrets by William McNeilly

from Sunday Herald, 17 May 2015

My name is William McNeilly. I am a weapons engineer submariner for the UK's Trident II D5 strategic weapons system. The penalty for releasing this report will be life prison if I’m lucky.

The worst fear for me isn’t prison or being assassinated, it’s the fear of sacrificing everything I have just to warn the public and yet never be heard. My leave expires today. I will be hunted down for not turning up.

When I’m found I will confess and will no longer be able to keep trying to warn the public. This document will enlighten you about the shockingly extreme conditions that our nuclear weapons system is in right now, and has been in the past. I need you to publish this document or send it to someone who will - please, for the safety of the people.

The complete lack of concern for security worries me. The fact is it would have been even easier for me to cause a nuclear catastrophe than to gather information, and gathering information was actually quite simple, due to the amount of ignorance.

We are at war, with a new kind of enemy. The terrorists have infiltrated every nation on our planet. Our nuclear weapons are a target that's wide open to attack. You don't have to be Alexander the Great to see we must adapt our strategies.

The Cold War is over; are we still in situation where we must invest billions upon billions into a system that puts our citizens at risk? No! We must adapt to the evolving world in order to survive!

I had envisioned a system with strict security and safety. I didn't see how wrong I was until I arrived at HMS Neptune (Faslane). At the gate the guard barely looked at my pass. It's harder to get into most nightclubs.

We headed down the boat. No search at all. It wasn't because we're Royal Navy personnel; it was because that's the standard procedures. Hundreds of contractors go down the boat when it's alongside. Their equipment isn't searched and they are not patted down. All it takes is someone to bring a bomb on board to commit the worst terrorist attack the UK and the world has ever seen.

Devonport naval dockyard under fire for nuclear safety breaches

Exclusive, 22 April 2015

A government watchdog has reprimanded the Royal Navy’s nuclear submarine base at Devonport in Plymouth after a string of safety breaches.

The Office for Nuclear Regulation (ONR) has served the base with a legal enforcement notice to remedy flaws in the arrangements for protecting workers from radiation. It has also disclosed five incidents in which safety rules were broken between October and December last year, and described the procedures for reporting incidents as "significantly below standard".

Devonport is the largest naval base in Western Europe, and services Britain’s nuclear submarine fleet. One of the submarines usually armed with Trident nuclear missiles, HMS Vengeance, is currently being refitted there, with another, HMS Vanguard, due in next for maintenance.

Because of concerns over health and safety, the base has been given “an enhanced level of regulatory attention” by ONR since 2013. An incident last year in which a worker was contaminated with radioactivity prompted ONR to issue a statutory improvement notice in December. 

Though the radiation dose the worker received was small, ONR said it “highlighted shortfalls in the health and safety arrangements for working with ionising radiations at Devonport Royal Dockyard”. The dockyard has been ordered “to bring the arrangements up to an acceptable standard” before the end of January 2016.

Work on new Trident for the Clyde begins before Westminster decides

from Sunday Herald, 12 April 2015

The Ministry of Defence (MoD) has begun work on stationing new Trident submarines on the Clyde before the UK parliament has decided whether or not to give them the go-ahead, the Sunday Herald can reveal.

The MoD has launched a series of studies into how the Faslane and Coulport naval bases can accommodate larger “successor” submarines to replace the four existing Trident boats. But the decision on whether they will be needed is not due to be taken until next year by the MPs that will be elected next month.

The revelation has sparked outrage from the Scottish National Party (SNP), the Scottish Greens and anti-nuclear campaigners, who accuse the MoD of pre-empting a democratic decision. It comes on the eve of a mass ‘scrap Trident’ blockade that aims to close down Faslane on Monday.

The SNP’s defence spokesman, Angus Robertson, is writing to the Conservative Defence Minister, Michael Fallon, demanding to know what is being spent on preparing the Clyde for new Trident submarines. “The MoD has been caught out again,” he said.

“This raises some very serious questions for the MoD, as costs are being incurred before there has been any democratic scrutiny, debate or even approval,” he said. Spending money at Faslane to get ready for the next generation of Trident before a single parliamentary vote “would be completely unacceptable”, he argued.

Hundreds to risk arrest by trying to shut down Trident bomb base

from Sunday Herald, 12 April 2015

Early on Monday morning hundreds of protestors from across Scotland are planning to blockade the Faslane nuclear bomb base near Helensburgh with the aim of closing it down for the day.

Many will lock themselves together to block access roads and stop staff and military officials from getting to work. There are likely to be multiple arrests, with a major operation by Police Scotland and the Ministry of Defence expected. 

Protestors are being trained in non-violent direct action, learning passive resistance techniques, and being given legal support. If they plan on getting arrested, they are being advised to bring a sandwich to eat in the police van and a book to read in the cell.

The ‘Scrap Trident’ blockade is being organised by a coalition of 15 peace, political and pro-independence groups. It follows last Saturday’s ‘Bairns Not Bombs’ rally in Glasgow’s George Square, where up to 4,000 demonstrators were addressed by First Minister Nicola Sturgeon, Scottish Green Party co-convenor Patrick Harvie, and Labour’s North Ayrshire parliamentary candidate and former MP, Katy Clark.

Organisers say they are expecting two or three hundred people to turn up at the Trident base, and are running coaches from Glasgow and Edinburgh. Though some of the protestors will be veterans who’ve been arrested before, many will be first-timers, inspired by the independence referendum and the hope of change in the forthcoming UK election (see below).

MoD reprimanded after radiation incident at Faslane

from The National, 23 March 2015 

The Ministry of Defence (MoD) is being reprimanded by a government watchdog for breaking safety rules after a worker was exposed to radiation at the Faslane nuclear base on the Clyde.

The incident occurred because staff stopped carrying portable alarms as they should to alert them to radiation dangers. The Office for Nuclear Regulation (ONR) is warning the MoD that it must take remedial action to make sure it doesn’t happen again.

Critics described the incident as “unacceptable” and “worrying”, arguing that it raised renewed questions about nuclear safety on the Clyde. The MoD, however, said that procedures had been improved.

The incident is described in ONR’s latest quarterly report on the Clyde nuclear submarine and bomb bases at Faslane and Coulport, posted online. It happened in June 2014, and prompted an internal investigation by the MoD and then another by ONR safety inspectors.

The worker was subjected to a small burst of radiation from a radioactive source, which had been left partially unshielded. A variety of radiation sources are used in industry as x-rays and gauges.

Pegasus grounded: vital Trident bomb project ‘on hold’ after problems

from Sunday Herald, 08 March 2015

A top-secret £634 million project vital for renewing the Trident nuclear weapons system has been halted following design and management difficulties, according to the government's Office for Nuclear Regulation (ONR).

This could undermine the UK government’s entire plan to replace Trident, say critics. They are demanding investigations by the National Audit Office and by the Ministry of Defence (MoD).

The MoD insisted that work towards replacing Trident was continuing, though it was being kept “under close review”. Insiders, however, have claimed that key projects are faltering and could be cancelled.

Since 2013 the private consortium that runs the Atomic Weapons Establishment (AWE) for the MoD has been building a plant, codenamed Pegasus, to make enriched uranium components for nuclear warheads and fuel for nuclear submarines based on the Clyde.

But in response to a freedom of information request, ONR has revealed that Pegasus - named after a fabled flying horse - has been grounded. “AWE has placed the Pegasus project on-hold and is currently re-assessing requirements for project delivery”, said ONR. A “revised scope and delivery schedule” was now awaited.

Internal documents released by ONR show that Pegasus had been “subject to a large number of changes from the start”. There had been problems with “senior management churn”, “poor engagement” and “email ping-pong” at AWE.

There had been a “reluctance of AWE staff to talk with ONR”, according to the minute of a special meeting to discuss delays in 2013. Safety reports needed to be “of better quality”, it said, and the regulatory process for Pegasus had started late and taken “longer than planned”.

ONR also expressed specific concern about one issue, though its description has been blacked out so it’s unclear what it was. “So much had to be taken on trust and any vagueness caused great difficulties with permissioning,” it said. 

MoD struggling with shortage of engineers to keep nuclear bombs safe

from Sunday Herald, 08 March 2015

The Ministry of Defence (MoD) is struggling to recruit enough skilled engineers to keep its nuclear bombs and submarines safe, according to a new report from its internal watchdog.

The Defence Nuclear Safety Regulator (DNSR) is warning that the shortage of suitably qualified nuclear staff is “the principal threat to the maintenance of safety in the Defence Nuclear Programme”. This is “a long standing issue” that could impede major developments, it says.

The warnings come in DNSR’s latest annual report covering 2013-14, which was posted online without announcement. The staff shortages have been caused by competition from the nuclear power industry, which the UK government is trying to greatly expand.

“Pressure from the civil nuclear market will continue to drive vulnerability in this small and highly skilled group,” the report says. The sustainability of the necessary skill set within the MoD “remains fragile”. 

Interventions to try and tackle the shortages had so far shown “little direct evidence of improvement”, DNSR says. “Safety has not been compromised, but the loss of resilience increases the likelihood of project delays.”

Nuclear safety incidents at Clyde bomb bases rocket

from Sunday Herald, 01 March 2015 

Fresh alarms over nuclear dangers on the Clyde have been sounded after the Ministry of Defence (MoD) revealed that the number of radiation safety incidents had leapt by more than 50 per cent in a year. 

There were 105 “nuclear safety events” officially recorded at the Faslane and Coulport submarine and bomb bases in 2013-14, compared to 68 in 2012-13. That’s by far the highest for at least the last six years (see table below).

Most of the incidents last year – 99 – involved the reactors that power Trident and other Royal Navy submarines. The remaining six involved nuclear weapons, which are carried by Trident submarines and stored at Coulport.

The MoD has not given details of all the incidents, but it stresses that they were minor and didn’t endanger the health of workers or the public. Forty-five of the events in 2013-14 were categorised as level C, meaning there was “moderate potential for future release or exposure, or localised release within a designated radiological controlled area.”

The other 60 incidents were classified as level D. This is defined by the MoD as “low potential for release – but may contribute towards an adverse trend producing latent conditions.”

Revealed: UK’s top Trident officials met three days before indyref

from Sunday Herald, 22 February 2015

Four of the UK government’s top Trident officials held a meeting to discuss “maritime programme shaping” just three days before the independence referendum on 18 September, according to the Ministry of Defence (MoD).

A list of meetings disclosed under freedom of information law also reveals that two days later on the eve of the referendum, one of the officials met with a senior policy advisor to Prime Minister David Cameron at Downing Street.

The revelations have been seized on by the Scottish National Party (SNP) as evidence that Westminster did consider the fate of the Trident nuclear weapons system in the event of a Yes vote – something that the MoD has always denied. SNP policy was to rid Scotland of Trident as soon as possible after independence.

The SNP’s interpretation has been backed by a leading academic and campaigners, but it is strongly disputed by the MoD. The meetings were “routine” and “not referendum related”, the MoD insisted.

The MoD has released a list of meetings attended by its chief of defence materiel, Bernard Gray, during 2014. On 15 September he met for an hour with three senior nuclear officials: Rear Admiral Mark Beverstock, director of chief strategic systems executive; Andrew Mackinder, strategic weapons head; and Rear Admiral Mike Wareham, submarines director.

£4.2bn: the bill for replacing Trident before parliament gives go-ahead

from Sunday Herald, 08 February 2015

The Ministry of Defence (MoD) is planning to spend £4.2 billion on replacing the Trident nuclear weapons system before the UK parliament has given it the go-ahead, according to a report from the government’s National Audit Office (NAO).

The money is being spent on designing new submarines, reactors and missile compartments ahead of a long-promised decision on Trident replacement by MPs in 2016, after this year’s UK general election. Previous reports have suggested that around £2bn or £3bn would be incurred before the decision was taken.

Opposition politicians and campaigners have condemned the MoD for pre-empting a democratic decision on whether or not the UK should continue to rely on weapons of mass destruction. The MoD says it has always been transparent about the costs “whilst protecting our commercial position”. 

The NAO report also reveals that the MoD has underestimated the cost of upgrading the nuclear reactors that power Trident submarines by £151 million. This was because it had to master 40 new manufacturing techniques while coping with an acute shortage of nuclear engineers.

The revelations raised very serious questions for the MoD, warned the SNP Westminster leader and defence spokesman, Angus Robertson MP. “Costs are spiraling out of control before MPs have even had a chance to vote on renewal,” he told the Sunday Herald.

Alarm over nuclear bomb convoy driving through Glasgow in bad weather

from The National, 13 January 2015

The Ministry of Defence (MoD) has been accused of a “callous disregard for public safety” after a big nuclear bomb convoy was tracked driving through Glasgow and across the Erskine Bridge in appalling weather conditions on Sunday night.

The 20-vehicle convoy, including four high-sided heavy-duty weapons carriers, a fire engine, armoured personnel carriers and MoD police guards, arrived at the Royal Naval Armaments Depot at Coulport on Loch Long around 1am on Monday morning.

Though it’s meant to be top secret, it was watched and followed for most of its journey by anti-nuclear campaigners. It left the nuclear weapons factory at Burghfield in Berkshire at 9am on Sunday and used the M4, M40 and M6 to get to Scotland, and was filmed en route.

Between 11.35 and 11.55 on Sunday night the convoy was on the M74 and M8 going through Glasgow. It then crossed the Erskine Bridge despite illuminated warnings of “high winds” on the approach roads.

According to Traffic Scotland, drivers have been urged to use caution on the bridge since 9 January because of poor weather. Other bridges in Scotland have periodically been closed to high-sided vehicles because they could be toppled by strong gusts.

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.

Revealed: Westminster’s £37 million US deal for Trident missile launchers

from Sunday Herald, 23 November 2014 

Westminster has agreed a £37 million deal with the US government for a dozen huge new Trident missile launchers more than a year before the UK parliament is due to decide whether the nuclear weapons system should be renewed.

The US defence giant, General Dynamics, has been contracted by the US Navy to make 12 launch tubes for a UK submarine that could start to replace those currently on the Clyde next decade. According to the US Navy, the company will end up making a total of 48 missile tubes for four new UK nuclear submarines.

But the UK parliament is not scheduled to take the main decision on whether or not Trident nuclear weapons should be renewed, or how many submarines there should be, until 2016 after next year’s general election. This has angered leading Nationalist and Labour politicians, who accuse the UK government of preempting a democratic decision.

The deal to equip UK submarines with 12 missile launch tubes each is also at odds with the UK government’s oft-repeated disarmament promise that it would only use eight. Critics fear that future governments could load the four additional tubes with missiles and hugely expand the UK’s nuclear firepower. The UK government is also facing allegations that it misled the public and the United Nations (UN) over the number of tubes, though this is denied.

Plan for new radioactive waste plant at Faslane

from Sunday Herald, 23 November 2014

The Ministry of Defence (MoD) has applied for planning permission for a major new radioactive waste treatment plant at the nuclear submarine base at Faslane on the Clyde.

It has told Argyll and Bute Council that the new facility is to treat and dispose of solid and liquid radioactive waste from the reactors that drive submarines. Some of the waste will be discharged into the Gareloch, northwest of Helensburgh.

The new plant will be housed in a two-storey building 45 metres long and 31 metres wide, and is designed to last for 50 years. If planning permission is given, construction is expected to begin in January 2016 and finish in April 2018.

“The existing effluent treatment and disposal process is effective but nearing the end of its life and it requires to be replaced with a facility which will utilise modern technology and will reduce the levels of radioactivity in the effluent discharges into the Gareloch,” the planning application says.

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.

Nuclear bomb factories breach radioactive waste safety rules

from The Guardian, 02 October 2014

Britain’s nuclear bomb factories have been reprimanded by two government watchdogs for breaking safety rules on radioactive wastes.

AWE, the private consortium that operates Trident nuclear weapons facilities at Aldermaston and Burghfield in Berkshire for the Ministry of Defence, has come under fire from the Environment Agency (EA) and the Office for Nuclear Regulation (ONR) for failures in managing its hazardous wastes. 

The EA has issued AWE with a “non-compliance” notice because key posts meant to ensure the safe handling of wastes have been vacant for months. These include waste officers, radioactive specialists and the head of environment. 

AWE blamed “security requirements” - which can include the vetting of prospective employees - for delays in filling the vacancies. According to the EA, AWE has breached conditions imposed in 2012 to ensure that enough skilled staff were employed to look after radioactive wastes safely.

“Operators are expected to comply with their permit conditions at all times,” an EA spokesman told The Guardian. “Following a site audit we found that AWE Aldermaston was not fully complying with all their permit conditions.”

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.

Probe into radiation incident at Faslane

from Sunday Herald, 17 August 2014

An investigation has been launched after a worker at the Faslane naval base on the Clyde was mistakenly exposed to radiation. 

The incident happened in June, but was only revealed in a report posted online last week by the UK government’s Office for Nuclear Regulation (ONR). It said that an operator had received a “small dose” from a radiography source used for checking materials.

“The incident in question occurred during a standard procedure and involved a radiographer approaching the source while it was still exposed,” said an ONR spokeswoman. “On realising this, the radiographer returned to the control device and ensured the source was retracted. The dose accrued was below any notifiable limit.”

She added: “ONR is still awaiting the outcome of HM Navel Base Clyde’s investigation and it is therefore not appropriate to comment in detail at this time.”