nuclear-news

16 nuclear submarine crashes, admission by UK Ministry of Defence

The incident involving HMS Astute was clearly not a one-off, and the MoD must explain why previous groundings have not been made public,…….

Revealed: MoD admits to 16 nuclear submarine crashes – Herald Scotland Rob Edwards,  7 Nov 2010 The Ministry of Defence (MoD) has been accused of a “catalogue of blunders” after admitting there have been 16 crashes involving British nuclear-powered submarines since 1988. More than half of the accidents were in seas around Scotland. According to critics, the repeated errors that caused the accidents suggest that the MoD has failed to learn from past mistakes. A serious incident in the future could cause radioactivity to leak and put public health at risk, they warn.

The Royal Navy’s newest nuclear submarine, HMS Astute, is being repaired at the Faslane naval base on the Clyde after it ran aground for 10 hours near the Skye Bridge on October 22. It emerged last week that one of the boat’s fins was damaged in a collision with a tug trying to rescue it.

The list of accidents came in a parliamentary answer to the Scottish Nationalist defence spokesman, Angus Robertson MP. In addition to HMS Astute last month, it included eight other accidents in Scottish waters.

Two were around Skye, one near Lewis, and one in the Firth of Clyde. Another occurred in the North Channel off the south-west coast and two in unspecified places “west of Scotland”.

The incident involving HMS Astute was clearly not a one-off, and the MoD must explain why previous groundings have not been made public,…….

Revealed: MoD admits to 16 nuclear submarine crashes – Herald Scotland | News | Transport & Environment

November 8, 2010 - Posted by Christina Macpherson | safety, UK | antinuclear, nuclear, nuclear secrecy, nuclear weapons