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Secret history of UK’s Dalgety Beach radioactive pollution

Secret report warned that Dalgety Bay posed a radiation risk.. in 1958 http://www.dailyrecord.co.uk/news/scottish-news/2012/05/03/secret-report-warned-that-dalgety-bay-posed-a-radiation-risk-in-1958-86908-23846064/ May 3 2012  A SECRET report in 1958 warned of a radiation risk on a Scottish beach – but was ignored by the Government, it emerged yesterday.

The study, written a year before the Ministry of Defence closed their base at Donibristle in Dalgety Bay, Fife, urged ministers to control the disposal of radium painted on dials of military planes.

Radiation found on the beach at Dalgety Bay is believed to be from radium paint used on aircraft instruments, which were dumped in the Firth of Forth after the war.

The first radioactive particle was found on the beach in 1990 and is thought to have come from wartime aircraft at Donibristle.

The MoD are investigating how the pollution might be cleaned up but have yet to accept liability.

Details from the 1958 report warn of the risks of radiation from the dumping of aircraft dials.

It says: “There may be undesirably high levels of radiation near these dumps. Records of burials and of burial sites should be kept and handed on to future users of the land.” Ex-PM Gordon Brown, whose constituency includes Dalgety Bay, said: “This report emphasises the responsibility of the MoD for radiation materials at Dalgety Bay.

“It shows why they must consider themselves liable for a clean-up at Dalgety Bay. It shows there was a knowledge of the risks of dumping nuclear material. I am asking to know why this report was never taken seriously.”

Dalgety Bay and Hillend Council chairman Colin McPhail said: “The MoD were made aware of the consequences of dumping the material by their own report, yet chose to carry on with it. I’d call this conclusive evidence.”

The MoD said they would pay their portion of any liabilities over the contamination at Dalgety Bay but only if they were “found to be a party responsible”.

May 5, 2012 - Posted by Christina Macpherson | secrets,lies and civil liberties, UK