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Nuclear reactor from HMS Vanguard being dismantled in Plymouth’s Devonport Dockyard

Nuclear reactor being dismantled in Devonport The Herald (UK)  March 04 2009

A MASSIVE section of the nuclear reactor from HMS Vanguard is secretly being dismantled in Devonport, but the Ministry of Defence has insisted the project is safe.

A massive section of the reactor from HMS Vanguard – which was refitted and refuelled at Devonport dockyard between 2002 and 2004 – is being dismantled at the city dockyard.

Royal Navy sources have said it was the first time a submarine reactor had been cut up in the UK.

And campaigners against the storage of nuclear waste at the naval base claimed they knew nothing of the scheme and accused the Ministry of Defence of ignoring public opposition to reactor disposal work in the city.

They fear it is a precursor to the reactors aboard seven redundant submarines stored in the naval yard being cut up at Devonport…………………….an Avent, of the Campaign Against Nuclear Storage and Radiation (Cansar), said: “This is the first phase in Plymouth becoming a nuclear scrapyard.

“The Ministry of Defence are going to use this project to justify doing all the other submarines here. What makes it worse is that they are doing it behind our backs.”………………………Five years ago, the public rejected any plans to manage or store nuclear waste at Devonport after consultation on the Ministry of Defence’s controversial Interim Storage of Laid Up Submarines (ISOLUS) project.

Nuclear reactor from HMS Vanguard being dismantled in Plymouth’s Devonport Dockyard

March 5, 2009 - Posted by Christina Macpherson | secrets,lies and civil liberties, UK