No funds to deal with UK’s dead nuclear submarines: public at radiation risk

The reports also reveal that there is “no funded plan” for the decommissioning of Britain’s 16 defunct nuclear submarines…..the need to make cost savings is being put ahead of the need to meet regulatory safety and environmental standards.”

Nuclear weapons sites cuts put public at risk, says watchdog, The Guardian, 12 Jan 2011, Staff shortages and funding cuts at nuclear weapons sites across the UK have put the public and the environment at risk, according to the Ministry of Defence’s nuclear safety watchdog. The analysis, marked “restricted”, points to 11 “potentially significant risks” at bomb-making sites and ports housing nuclear submarines, documents seen by the Guardian show.

They warn that efforts to reduce radioactive risks have been “weak”, safety analyses “inconsistent” and attempts to cope with change “poor”. Formal regulatory action has been taken at two naval dockyards: Devonport in Plymouth and Barrow-in-Furness in Cumbria.

The reports also reveal that there is “no funded plan” for the decommissioning of Britain’s 16 defunct nuclear submarines. Nine are moored at Devonport and seven at Rosyth on the Firth of Forth.

The reports cover 2006 and 2007 and were written by Rear Admiral Nigel Guild, chairman of the defence nuclear environment and safety board, an agency within the MoD that oversees nuclear safety. They were released in response to requests under the Freedom of Information Act………

According to one former MoD official, nuclear safety had been compromised. Fred Dawson, who worked for the MoD for 31 years and was head of its radiation protection policy team before he retired in 2009, described the absence of funds for decommissioning nuclear submarines as “particularly damning”.

He said: “It suggests that the need to make cost savings is being put ahead of the need to meet regulatory safety and environmental standards.”

Nuclear weapons sites cuts put public at risk, says watchdog | World news | The Guar

January 13, 2011 - Posted by Christina Macpherson | safety, UK