nuclear-news

The Ministry of Defence has today begun a 16-week consultation exercise exploring the options for dismantling decommissioned nuclear-powered submarines. The consultation aims to find a permanent home for The Submarine Dismantling Project (SDP) – either in Plymouth, or Scotland.

Peter Luff MP, The Minister for Defence Equipment, Support and Technology, yesterday released a statement to the House of Commons regarding the SDP. “Submarines in afloat storage are maintained safely, in a similar way to operational submarines,” he said.”As they age, however, and as further submarines leave service, the cost to the taxpayer of maintaining them is rising significantly, and space to store them is running out…..

There are currently 27 submarines (of past and current classes from Dreadnought to Vengeance) which could be dismantled….

National workshops will also be held in accessible locations in England and Scotland to inform people of the proposals.

There are three key decisions on which the MoD is seeking the public’s views:

How the radioactive waste is removed;

Where the radioactive waste is removed;

And options for storing the waste that cannot be disposed of immediately.

The main activities required to dismantle submarines include:

Initial Dismantling: All radioactive material on the submarine will be removed. This is mainly metalwork inside the reactor compartment that has become radioactive during use.

Interim Storage: The radioactive waste that cannot be disposed of immediately will be placed into ‘interim’ storage, until a disposal solution is available sometime after 2040…..

Full details of the Submarine Dismantling Project are available on the website: www.mod.uk/submarinedismantling.  Event details are expected to be listed in full on this website…..

Jeremy Guise, Chairman, City of Plymouth Unison said: The proposed Submarine Dismantling Project represents a significant intensification of the hazard posed by the nuclear dockyard.

Whatever rigorous safety procedures are in place, no human activity is completely risk-free.It is the magnitude of the consequences of a nuclear accident that make it unacceptable to locate such a facility in the middle of a city of 250,000 people.

Although nothing on the scale of Chernobyl or Fukushima, Devonport is not immune from accidents. There have been nine radioactive leaks since 1997.

The impact of a significant accident in the dockyard would be devastating. It would not remain confined behind its walls but would affect a much wider area. Within a few hundred metres of the dockyard wall there is a primary school and established residential communities.

Why then has Plymouth been chosen, as one of just two potential sites, to be worldwide guinea pigs for an unproven, and potentially dangerous technique, of removing the section of hull containing the reactor core of obsolete nuclear powered submarines and cutting it up into small pieces for selling as recyclable metal?

I believe it is primarily motivated by the large profits that Babcock and the other contractors hope to earn from this process. In return for a few specialist jobs, Plymouth would become known as the ‘Sellafield of the South West’, a poor, blighted city that the rest of the world hurries through on its way to Cornwall.

There is an alternative. We could, like the Americans, store the hull sections containing the nuclear reactors away from settlements and regenerate the dockyard to provide thousands of new marine engineering jobs making wave and wind power machines.

Public consultation on the submarine disposal has started. This is the most important decision the city has faced in years. I hope all those who care for the future of this city raise their voices in opposition to this proposal.

http://www.thisisplymouth.co.uk/N-subs-dismantled-city/story-13686266-detail/story.html