nuclear-news

British secretly dumped Maralinga plutonium in ocean | The Courier-Mail

British secretly dumped Maralinga plutonium in ocean Courier Mail

Charles Miranda in London

December 29, 2008

………………………..Just how much radioactive waste resulted from the British series of tests at Maralinga, in South Australia, and how the then British government disposed of it has always been a mystery. However, declassified British Government documents to be released publicly today under the 30-year rule reveal for the first time the plutonium’s final resting place was probably the ocean floor……………………………….At the height of the nuclear debate in Australia in 1978 the British agreed to clean the site they contaminated between 1955 and 1963, predominantly because they wanted to win favour with then prime minister Malcolm Fraser (Liberal Party) to secure exports of mined uranium to meet their growing energy needs.

They agreed to secretly remove half a kilogram of plutonium and about 20kg of radioactive waste, intermingled with debris, on condition its final resting place was never publicly revealed and Australia never repeated its clean-up request.

“The Ministry of Defence considers that, however carefully presented, a reference to disposal of plutonium at sea could provoke opposition, eg from the Greenpeace movement, to our sea-dumping program,” one confidential memo seen by The Courier-Mail states.

“It will also focus public attention on sea dumping at a time when we are likely to face pressure from the United States to reduce our sea-dumping activities, which are internationally supervised.” The British authorities demanded their Australian counterparts maintain maximum secrecy over the issue and reminded them they were under no legal obligation to clean up their contaminated work in Australia.

Another clean-up involving 350,000 cubic metres of soil was conducted in 2000 at a cost of $110 million.

Hundreds of servicemen and their families from Britain and Australia have sought compensation for exposure and a range of contracted cancers.

British secretly dumped Maralinga plutonium in ocean | The Courier-Mail

December 29, 2008 - Posted by Christina Macpherson | Uncategorized