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Revealed: The KGB plot to poison loch with radioactive waste… then blame it on American nuclear subs CND peaceniks were campaigning to ban from Britain

Daily Mail, By MARK HOOKHAM, 24 August 2025

The KGB secretly plotted to attack the UK at the height of the Cold War by polluting Scotland’s coastline with radioactive waste, it was revealed this weekend.

Masterminded by a Soviet spy based in London, the plan involved dumping nuclear waste into Holy Loch on the Clyde, which was a crucial base for US nuclear-armed submarines.

The proposed attack was designed to fracture the UK’s ‘special relationship’ with America, by falsely implicating the US military in a devastating radioactive incident, and to stoke Britain’s anti-nuclear movement.

Details of the shocking plot have been unearthed from declassified FBI files by security expert Richard Kerbaj and are revealed in an explosive book about the extraordinary life of Oleg Lyalin, a Soviet agent who defected from the KGB in 1971.

Lyalin claimed to be a ‘knitwear’ specialist with Russia’s trade delegation in London. But in reality he was a spy attached to Department V, a top secret KGB unit tasked with assassinations, kidnappings and sabotage.

A heavy-drinking partygoer engaged in a string of extramarital affairs, Lyalin defected, aged 33, after his wife secretly told his Soviet colleagues that he was a liar and a cheat and that he was dissatisfied with his work for the KGB.

During his debriefing by MI5 he revealed how he had been tasked by Moscow with drawing up plans for a series of attacks to destabilise the UK and spread panic if a war looked imminent.

Lyalin’s bombshell revelations led to the UK’s expulsion of 105 suspected Soviet intelligence officers from Britain – the largest ever such expulsion by a single country and a turning point in MI5’s fight against Soviet spy networks during the Cold War.

The KGB agent’s dramatic defection came at the height of the Cold War, with the West and the Soviet Union locked in an arms race amid fears of nuclear conflict.

Official MI5 files on Lyalin remain under lock and key in Britain. However, information the Security Service passed to the FBI has now been unearthed by Kerbaj after painstaking research.

A file with hundreds of pages of intelligence reports and memos related to Lyalin’s defection gathered dust in an FBI warehouse until it was declassified in 2018.

One three-page FBI report, written in September 1971 and stamped ‘Secret’, revealed how ‘Lyalin revealed that on one occasion a proposal was submitted to headquarters for an operation to contaminate Holy Loch with radioactive material with a view to implicating US Naval forces’.

Holy Loch, a sea loch 25 miles from Glasgow, was used by the US Navy as a ballistic missile submarine base between 1961 and 1992.

Home to up to ten submarines carrying Polaris nuclear missiles, a floating dry dock and a depot ship, it was the epicentre of protests by the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament (CND).

Crucially, unlike other KGB plans designed to sow chaos after the outbreak of war, the plot to poison Scottish waters would have been launched during peacetime.

The Kremlin had already targeted the base, obtaining a secret submarine manual in 1967, which led to the arrest and jailing of three KGB agents.

In his book, entitled The Defector, Kerbaj writes that the KGB ‘believed they could stoke the ongoing fears held by anti-nuclear protesters, who had been warning for years about the potential release of radioactive debris from the nuclear submarines in the Firth of Clyde’.

CND and other anti-nuclear protesters had established a camp on Holy Loch and tried to intercept US support ships using kayaks.

In May 1961, Michael Foot, one of the founders of the CND who later became Labour Party leader, led 2,000 people in a huge protest against the submarines in nearby Dunoon. Around 350 protesters were arrested later that year during another big demonstration.

The declassified FBI documents reveal how Lyalin’s audacious proposal required approval from the Central Committee of the Communist Party in Moscow…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………… https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-15027913/KGB-plot-poison-loch-radiation-blame-American-nuclear-subs-CND-peaceniks-campaigning-ban-Britain.html

August 25, 2025 Posted by Christina Macpherson | Russia, secrets,lies and civil liberties, UK | Leave a comment

Albion Stupidities: Palestine Action and Anti-Terrorism Laws

24 August 2025, Dr Binoy Kampmark, https://theaimn.net/albion-stupidities-palestine-action-and-anti-terrorism-laws/

Protest in Britain has become dangerous of late. Shaky lawmakers minding their elected positions, displaying decorative ignorance, have been criminalising protests against the war in Gaza, branding certain groups “terrorist” in inclination. While the laws dealing with criminal damage to property and such are already more than adequate, the government of Sir Keir Starmer thought it wise to enlarge them. There are people dying in large numbers in Gaza, and those protesting that situation have become a nuisance.

The keen obsession of this government – and a majority of the cerebrally softened legislators in the House of Commons – is that a group called Palestine Action is somehow worthy of being bracketed as a terrorist group under the Terrorist Act 2000. On June 20, members of the outfit broke into a Royal Airforce base at Brize Norton, Oxfordshire and spray painted two military aircraft alleged to be aiding US and Israel in refuelling tasks. This seemingly minor display of indignation by the organisation was enough to warrant its proscription by Home Secretary Yvette Cooper three days later under section 3 of the Terrorism Act.

United Nations experts linked to the UN Human Rights Office of the High Commissioner, among them Francesca Albanese, Ben Saul and Irene Khan, issued a press release on July 1 calling the labelling of a protest movement as “terrorist” an unjustified measure. “According to international standards, acts of protest that damage property, but are not intended to kill or injure people, should not be treated as terrorism.” Despite there being no binding definition of terrorism in international law, the experts were of the view that it would be limited to such acts as would cause death, serious personal injury, or involve the taking of hostages “in order to intimidate a population or compel a government or an international organisation to do or to abstain from doing any act.”

Were a national law to criminalise property damage in democracies, it would have to exclude acts of advocacy, protest, dissent or industrial action not causing death or serious injury, an approach approved by the UN Security Council’s Counter-Terrorism Executive Directorate. In the case of banning Palestine Action, individuals would be needlessly “prosecuted for peacefully exercising their rights to freedom of expression and opinion, assembly, association and participation in political life.”

A leaked report by the Joint Terrorism Analysis Centre (JTAC), obtained by human rights activist and former diplomat Craig Murray, further showed the decision to proscribe Palestine Action under the Terrorism Act as one marked by mendacity and panic on the part of the Starmer government. While JTAC is not sympathetic to Palestine Action, it did note that “The majority of the group’s activity would not be classified as terrorism under Section 1 of the Terrorism Act 2000.” While it assesses the group as having “promoted terrorism”, the primary focus of the direct action, according to the sanitised version of the report, is on inflicting property damage. Serious damage to property could bring the group within the legislation, but even then, as the UN experts have noted, that would not meet necessary international standards to warrant the label of terrorism.

According to Murray, had Palestine Action, as claimed or implied by the government, deliberately attacked individuals, received foreign funding from Iran or any hostile power, attacked Jewish-owned businesses based on racism, or planned a “future unspecified appalling terrorist acts”, then JTAC’s report would have made mention of it. “Palestine Action,” insists Murray, “is what it says it is: a non-violent direct action group which targets the Israeli weapons industry and its support and supply line.”

The High Court has granted Palestine Action co-founder Huda Ammori judicial review regarding the proscription of the organisation on two grounds: that it arguably amounts to a disproportionate interference with Article 10 and 11 rights of the claimants, which guarantee free speech and peaceful assembly under the European Convention on Human Rights; and that the proscription was made in breach or natural justice and/or contrary to article 6 the ECHR, which entitles all to a fair and public hearing within a reasonable time by an independent and impartial tribunal established by law. The Home Secretary, it was noted, had failed to even consult PA in making the decision.

The decision by the Starmer government was astonishing and, as with all bad laws, the foundry of astonishingly stupid results. It has made the police imbecilic enforcers; it has turned prosecutions into a dismal circus. Protesters otherwise regarded as very English and very middle class have found themselves facing arrests and charges. Over the course of one weekend this month, section 13 of the Terrorism Act 2000 was used to arrest over 500 people, most of them carrying a placard supporting PA. That provision criminalises the wearing of clothing items or the wearing, carrying or displaying of any article, and the publishing of an image of an item of clothing or any other article “in such way or in such circumstances as to arouse reasonable suspicion that he is a member or supporter of a proscribed organisation.” Sentences range from six-month imprisonment to a fine.

One particularly absurd arrest was that of retired head teacher John Farley, who was carrying a placard making reference to Palestine Action. Farley was eventually released on bail pending charges, which were never pressed. The incident last month did not even involve the proscribed organisation but was connected with another organised protest group.

The protest held in Leeds began as a solemn, silent march. Two police caught sight of Farley holding the placard. They proceeded to drag Harley away, and, typical of those types of recruits, refused to listen to any explanation: that the cartoon on the placard was a replica from the satirical magazine Private Eye, commenting on the banning of Palestine Action. The Private Eye piece, brutal, grim, and apposite, sought to explain what “Palestine Action”entailed: “Unacceptable Palestine Action” involved “spraying military planes with paint”;“Acceptable Palestine Action” entailed “shooting Palestinians queuing for food.”

Private Eye’s editor, Ian Hislop, roundly condemned the arrest as “mind-boggling” and “ludicrous”. The cartoon had been “a very neat and funny little encapsulation about what is and isn’t acceptable, and it’s a joke about – I mean, it’s quite a black joke – but about the hypocrisies of government approach to any sort of action in Gaza.”

A spokesman for West Yorkshire Police expressed some contrition for Farley’s consternation, and went on to express a view in tortured middle management speak. “As this is a new proscribed organisation, West Yorkshire Police is considering any individual or organisational learning from this incident.” That ship would seem to have sailed into the waters of sheer lunacy, leaving the judges to decide in November whether the proscription order for Palestine Action struck a proportionate balance. Till then, this egregious application of the law will continue to make pro-Palestinian protests in Britain a perilous affair.

August 25, 2025 Posted by Christina Macpherson | Legal, UK | Leave a comment

Call for investigation into serious nuclear leak at Faslane

By James Walker, Political Reporter

THE SNP have demanded urgent answers in a letter to the Ministry of
Defence (MoD) after the UK Government confirmed a serious nuclear incident
took place at Faslane earlier this year. Figures released to The Herald
last week revealed that a Category A event – the most serious category
– took place between January 1 and April 22 this year.

The MoD have since
claimed it posed no risk to the public. It came a week after it was also
forced to admit that Loch Long, which is next to the UK’s nuclear bomb
store at Coulport, is now contaminated with radioactive tritium following
years of infrastructure decay. Bill Kidd, a longtime campaigner against
nuclear weapons and SNP MSP (below), has condemned these revelations as a
“damning indictment of Westminster’s disregard for Scotland’s safety
and environment” and said it was proof that nuclear weapons are
“dangerous, immoral, and completely incompatible with the values of the
people of Scotland”.

The National 18th Aug 2025,
https://www.thenational.scot/news/25397459.call-investigation-serious-nuclear-leak-faslane/

August 22, 2025 Posted by Christina Macpherson | safety, UK | Leave a comment

Treasury criticises ‘unachievable’ plan for underground nuclear waste dump in Cumbria

Sandra Laville, Guardian, 18 August 25

The UK’s proposal for a new underground nuclear waste dump has been described as “unachievable” in a Treasury assessment of the project.

Ministers have put new nuclear power at the centre of their green energy revolution. But the problem of what to do with 700,000 cubic metres of radioactive waste – roughly the volume of 6,000 doubledecker buses – from the country’s past nuclear programme, as well as future waste from nuclear expansion, has yet to be solved.

The government is proposing the vast underground nuclear dump, known as a geological deposit facility (GDF), to safely deal with legacy waste and new nuclear material.

No site has yet been confirmed for the dump and Lincolnshire county council recently pulled out of the process, leaving only two possible sites, both in Cumbria.

A Treasury assessment this month, contained in the annual report of the National Infrastructure and Service Transformation Authority (Nista), has rated the project as “red”, which means successful delivery appears to be “unachievable”.

A red rating states: “There are major issues with project definition, schedule, budget, quality and/or benefits delivery, which at this stage do not appear to be manageable or resolvable. The project may need rescoping and/or its overall viability reassessed.”

Richard Outram, the secretary of Nuclear Free Local Authorities, said: “The Nista red rating is hardly surprising. The GDF process is fraught with uncertainties and the GDF ‘solution’ remains unproven and costly. The report also suggests the cost could soar to up to £54bn

“A single facility as estimated by government sources could cost the taxpayer between £20bn and £54bn. This being a nuclear project, it is much more likely to be the latter and beyond.”

Most nuclear waste is currently stored at Sellafield in Cumbria, which the Office for Nuclear Regulation says is one of the most complex and hazardous nuclear sites in the world.

The power stations that need decommissioning include 11 Magnox power stations built between the 1950s and 1970s, including Dungeness A in Kent, Hinkley Point A in Somerset and Trawsfynydd in north Wales, as well as seven advanced gas-cooled reactors built in the 1990s, including Dungeness B, Hinkley Point B and Heysham 1 and 2 in Lancashire.

Waste from more recent nuclear facilities, including Sizewell B, a pressurised water reactor in Suffolk, and two new EDF pressurised water reactors – Hinkley C, which is under construction in Somerset, and Sizewell C, which is planned for construction in Suffolk – will also need to be deposited in a GDF.

It is likely to take until 2150 to deposit the legacy waste into a GDF, if one is built. Only then would a GDF be able to take waste from new nuclear reactors………. https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2025/aug/18/treasury-criticises-unachievable-plan-for-underground-nuclear-waste-dump-in-cumbria

August 20, 2025 Posted by Christina Macpherson | UK, wastes | Leave a comment

Dumbing down: UK Taskforce charged with pushing nuclear deregulation .

The ‘reset’ is clearly driven by the frenzied demands of nuclear operators, developers, lobbyists, industry trades unions, politicians and sections of the media who are all interested at securing new nuclear with minimal red tape.

18th August 2025, https://www.nuclearpolicy.info/news/dumbing-down-taskforce-charged-with-pushing-nuclear-deregulation/

Despite conceding that the UK has a ‘strong track record in safety, delivered within a well-respected regulatory system’, the Government-appointed Nuclear Regulatory Taskforce has just published an interim report proposing deregulation of Britain’s civil and military nuclear sectors.

The UK/Ireland Nuclear Free Local Authorities are gravely concerned that this agenda amounts to the dumbing down of regulation in order to reduce the associated costs and administrative burden on nuclear operators, and that this will inevitably compromise safety, environmental and public protection, transparency and accountability.

Deregulation in the civil nuclear sector was a direct contributory factor in the Three Mile Island accident in the United States, and the latest pivot towards nuclear deregulation in the UK worryingly mirrors the direction taken by the Trump Administration, with the President having recently dismissed the Chair of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission.

Although the remit of the NRT is supposedly to support ‘energy security and national security’ it is based upon several falsehoods.

It is assumed that civil nuclear power is necessary to meet Britain’s future energy needs and that nuclear weapons are necessary for her defence:

‘Nuclear technology is critical to the UK’s future, both for low carbon energy and for our national security’.

And it is assumed that nuclear regulation is excessive, and therefore to facilitate the expansion of nuclear power and Britain’s nuclear arsenal there is need for reform:

Such sentiments have sadly been echoed by senior politicians. The Prime Minister has called for the nuclear sector to be freed to ‘Build, Baby, Build’, and Ministers have publicly stated their desire to railroad new nuclear projects past legitimate community objections with activists opposed to Hinkley Point C and Sizewell C having been dismissively branded ‘Nimbies’. Government intends to change the law to limit the ability of campaigners to challenge project approvals through the courts and is introducing new policies that grant considerable autonomy to developers in siting new nuclear projects.

Now the Taskforce proposes measures that represent a ‘radical reset’ and a ‘once in a generation’ transformation of the regulatory landscape.

This despite that fact that the report concedes that ‘The UK nuclear sector has a strong safety record overseen by expert and independent regulators’ with many consultees emphasising ‘the high level of credibility and trust in UK regulators’, which begs the question of if it ain’ t broken, why fix it?

It is assumed that civil nuclear power is necessary to meet Britain’s future energy needs and that nuclear weapons are necessary for her defence:

‘Nuclear technology is critical to the UK’s future, both for low carbon energy and for our national security’.

And it is assumed that nuclear regulation is excessive, and therefore to facilitate the expansion of nuclear power and Britain’s nuclear arsenal there is need for reform:

‘Over time, the regulation of civil and defence nuclear programmes has become increasingly complex and bureaucratic, leading to huge delays and ballooning costs, often for marginal benefit. With the UK’s ambitious civil and defence programmes set to expand to meet energy security, net zero, and deterrent demands, a reset is needed’.

In response to the NRT’s Call for Evidence earlier this year, these parties clearly responded by bewailing the current ‘system’ as ‘unnecessarily slow, inefficient, and costly’.

Now the Taskforce proposes measures that represent a ‘radical reset’ and a ‘once in a generation’ transformation of the regulatory landscape.

The Taskforce has said that it ‘will continue to gather evidence and views [on its initial proposals] over the Summer and will publish final recommendations in Autumn 2025.’

The interim report can be found at: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/nuclear-regulatory-taskforce/nuclear-regulatory-taskforce-interim-report

‘Concise and evidence based’ responses to the report are invited by email to nuclearregulatorytaskforce@energysecurity.gov.uk by 8 September.

For its part, the Nuclear Free Local Authorities wish to see no watering down of Britain’s current arrangements and will be robustly outlining our objections to any changes which favour expediency and profit over safety, public health and environmental protection. We urge all those with a similar mindset to do the same.

For the NFLAs, the only points of consolation to be found in the interim report are that nuclear fusion is excluded from the NRT’s remit and that the Taskforce cannot ‘make recommendations for devolved governments in devolved areas’..For more information, please contact the NFLA Secretary Richard Outram by email to richard.outram@manchester.gov.uk

August 19, 2025 Posted by Christina Macpherson | safety, UK | Leave a comment

US flies nuclear bombs to Britain.

“The new nuclear bombs which are now based at Lakenheath are entirely under the control of Donald Trump and could be used without the UK having any say at all in the matter.

August 17, 2025 by beyondnuclearinternational

Nukewatch UK reveals how US nuclear gravity bombs were deployed on US soil for the first time in 17 years

By Peter Burt

US nuclear bombs were delivered to Lakenheath air base on Thursday 17 July as part of NATO plans to deploy new battlefield nuclear nuclear weapons intended for war-fighting in Europe. The following is an examination of how we know this, with an update also below.

The flight

The arrival of a special flight transporting the bombs was observed by Nukewatch UK, who judge that the evidence publicly available from our observations and flight-tracking data now supports the conclusion that nuclear weapons are based at the Lakenheath US air base in Suffolk. This article explains how the weapons were brought to Lakenheath by the US Air Force and sets out the evidence which indicates they are now stationed at the British base.

Shortly after 7 am local time on Tuesday 15 July a giant C-17 Globemaster transport aircraft, flight number RCH4574 (‘Reach 4574’), assigned to the US Air Force’s 62nd Airlift Wing left Joint Base Lewis–McChord, its home base in Washington state. The 62nd Airlift Wing is an elite, highly trained transport unit which serves as the US Air Force’s Prime Nuclear Airlift Force: the only Air Force section tasked with the role of supporting the US Department of Defence and Department of Energy with their nuclear airlift operations. The aircraft undertaking the flight was a C-17 with the serial number 08-8200, flying on high priority mission with the air force mission number PAM112271196.

The aircraft flew across the continental United States to Kirtland Air Force Base in Albuquerque, New Mexico – the hub of the US Air Force’s nuclear operations, where the largest nuclear weapons storage facility in the world is located: the Kirtland Underground Munitions Maintenance and Storage Complex(KUMMSC). KUMMSC stores a significant portion of the US nuclear arsenal, including gravity bombs and warheads.

At Kirtland the aircraft almost certainly loaded up with a cargo of anything up to 20 newly manufactured B61-12 nuclear weapons – a new, modernised version of the US Air Force’s principal nuclear gravity bomb with greater accuracy than older variants of the weapon. Manufacturing of the B61-12 variant was completed in December 2024 and the weapon is currently being rolled out on deployment. Whilst at Kirtland the aircraft was parked on Pad 5 – the section of the airbase designated for handling hazardous cargoes. Other aircraft at the airport were given a warning not to overfly the aircraft on Pad 5 for a period of over five hours, which ended only once the C-17 had departed.

Mid evening local time on Wednesday 16 July Reach 4574 took off, with the pilot reminding the ground controller that the aircraft has “haz cargo” on board. The aircraft flew through the night across the Atlantic Ocean, rendezvousing with two KC-46 tanker aircraft from Pease Air National Guard Base and McGuire Air Force Base to refuel over the ocean east of New York.

In a co-ordinated operation, a second C-17 aircraft (aircraft number 09-9211, flight number RCH4205, mission number PAM112472196) also left Lewis-McChord on 15 July and flew to Ramstein Air Force Base in Germany (stopping briefly at Lakenheath) to be on standby in the event of a failure or emergency involving the primary aircraft. This standby aircraft may have been loaded with nuclear emergency response equipment for dealing with an accident involving the primary aircraft.

Reach 4574 approached the UK flying south of Ireland, then flew up the Bristol Channel, cut across north Devon, and flew north west along a corridor taking it close to Oxford and Milton Keynes, but avoiding overflying major centres of population. The plane landed at Lakenheath air base at 12.50 local time.

Unloading the bombs

Nukewatch UK was able to observe the aircraft landing and unloading from outside the Lakenheath base. During the unloading operation base security was at an unusually high level, with USAF security patrols and police cars undertaking patrols inside the base’s security fence and plain-clothed (but badged) personnel from the Air Force Office of Special Investigations patrolling outside the base……………………………………………………………………………………………..

Nukewatch UK believes that this C-17 aircraft was transporting a batch of B61-12 nuclear weapons to Lakenheath. Our reasons for arriving at this conclusion are given below.

US nuclear weapons in Europe

The 62nd Airlift Wing regularly conducts Prime Nuclear Airlift Force missions across the Atlantic to transport materials and equipment to air bases in Europe which support NATO’s nuclear mission in Europe, under which B61 bombs are stored at US bases in Europe and bases of European nations which take part in NATO nuclear-sharing arrangements with the US. Nukewatch has been actively tracking these flights for three years, and has used archived tracking data to analyse flights since the beginning of 2020. Over this period missions have included occasional operations which have been unusually complex, involving up to seven aircraft as stand-bys and for in-flight refuelling. In addition to operations involving nuclear weapons, the unit also conducts missions transporting special nuclear materials which visit several NATO nuclear bases in Europe in sequence, and also conducts missions involving training with ground personnel at several nuclear bases.

It is possible that the earliest of these missions were training and rehearsal flights for the delivery of new B61-12 nuclear bombs to Europe, with more recent flights actually transporting the nuclear bombs across the Atlantic for deployment at bases in Europe. Nukewatch has observed that Lakenheath has been involved in many of these missions, initially as a location for basing a stand-by aircraft in Europe – possibly for use by a nuclear emergency response team. More recently Lakenheath appears to have been involved in a series of ‘work up’ exercises and security drills involving aircraft from 62 Airlift Wing to prepare the base for the arrival of nuclear weapons, culminating in a large-scale exercise over two days on 10 – 11 June 2025 which may have been a dress rehearsal for the nuclear delivery operation. ………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………

What we think

Speaking on the delivery of US B61-12 nuclear weapons to Lakenheath, Juliet McBride of Nukewatch UK said:

“The new nuclear bombs which are now based at Lakenheath are entirely under the control of Donald Trump and could be used without the UK having any say at all in the matter. In fact, we wonder whether the UK government has even been notified by the US Air Force that the weapons are now stationed at Lakenheath.

“The nuclear weapons now stored at Lakenheath have an explosive power of up to 50 kilotons. For comparison, the atom bomb that devastated Hiroshima in 1945 had an explosive yield of 15 kilotons. Far from protecting Europeans during wartime, these nuclear weapons would contribute to turning Europe into a radioactive wasteland.

“Despite the significant issues and risks involved in basing these weapons of mass destruction in Europe, neither the US nor the UK government have bothered to inform citizens or Parliament that they have been deployed here. Nukewatch UK believes that UK citizens have a right to know that these preparations for fighting a nuclear war are under way, and we will continue to report on nuclear movements to Lakenheath and other European nuclear bases”.

Update: Second nuclear flight arrives at Lakenheath

Following a delivery of nuclear weapons to Lakenheath US air base in Suffolk on 17-18 July 2025, a second Prime Nuclear Airlift force flew to Lakenheath on 24-25 July to delivery a high priority hazardous cargo……………………………………………………………………….

Nukewatch concludes the following:

A high security unloading operation for hazardous materials took place at Lakenheath.
The operation seemed to follow slightly different procedures to the one observed the previous week.
Nevertheless, the degree of security and general circumstances of the flight seem to indicate that a nuclear-related load was probably delivered in the aircraft. This may have been components and equipment related to nuclear weapons, or possibly weapons themselves.
Between four to six loads seemed to be transported away from the aircraft in small convoys to a location on the airbase nearby.
Assuming two or three transporting vehicles in each convoy, and each convoy carried one nuclear bomb, this suggests that between around 8 and 18 ‘units’ of cargo were delivered by this flight. https://beyondnuclearinternational.org/2025/08/17/us-flies-nuclear-bombs-to-britain/

August 18, 2025 Posted by Christina Macpherson | UK, USA, weapons and war | Leave a comment

Rachel Reeves to cut ‘bats and newts’ in boost to developers

Developers would also no longer have to prove that projects would have no impact on protected natural sites, under plans that would abolish the “precautionary principle” enshrined in
European rules.

Chancellor considers making it harder for concerns about nature to stand in
the way of infrastructure projects, in an effort to boost the economy.

Rachel Reeves is preparing to strip back environmental protections in an
effort to boost the economy by speeding up infrastructure projects. The
chancellor is considering reforms that would make it far harder for
concerns about nature to stop development, which she insists is crucial to
restoring growth and improving living standards.

The Treasury has begun
preparing for another planning reform bill and is thinking about tearing up
key parts of European environmental rules that developers say are making it
harder to build key projects. Labour ministers have repeatedly insisted
that their current planning overhaul will not come at the expense of
nature, promising a “win-win” system where developers will pay to
offset environmental damage.

But Reeves is understood to believe that the
government must go significantly further, after expressing frustration that
the interests of “bats and newts” are being allowed to stymie critical
infrastructure. She has tasked officials with looking at much more
contentious reforms, which are likely to provoke a furious backlash from
environmentalists and cause unease for some Labour MPs.

A smaller, UK-only
list of protected species is being planned, which would place less weight
on wildlife — including types of newt — that is rare elsewhere in
Europe but more common in Britain. Developers would also no longer have to
prove that projects would have no impact on protected natural sites, under
plans that would abolish the “precautionary principle” enshrined in
European rules. Instead, a new test would look at risks and benefits of
potential projects. Further curbs to judicial review are also being
considered by Reeves to stop key projects being delayed by legal challenges
from environmentalists.

Times 17th Aug 2025, https://www.thetimes.com/uk/politics/article/rachel-reeves-strip-back-environmental-protections-planning-projects-xjxn02crs

August 18, 2025 Posted by Christina Macpherson | environment, UK | Leave a comment

Ministry of Defence urged to publish full details of Faslane incident.

The Ministry of Defence is being urged to publish full details of
a nuclear incident which took place at Faslane earlier this year. As
revealed by The Herald, the most serious grade of Nuclear Site Event Report
(NSER), Category A, took place at HMNB Clyde between January 1 and April
22.

The facility on Gare Loch is home to all of the Royal Navy’s
submarines, including the Vanguard class which are armed with Trident
missiles and the nuclear-powered Astute class hunter-killer vessels.

A Category A NSER carries an “actual or high potential for radioactive
release to the environment”. Approached for comment, the Ministry of
Defence said there had been “no unsafe releases of radioactive material” in
the Category A incident at Faslane but that it could not disclose details
of individual incidents for reasons of national security.

The MoD had previously admitted that radioactive material had been released into Loch
Long from RNAD Coulport after the Royal Navy failed to adequately maintain
the network of 1,500 water pipes on the base. Now SNP MSP Bill Kidd is
calling for the Ministry of Defence to publish full details of the Category
A incident, provide a complete contamination report for Loch Long, and set
out a clear plan for clean-up and prevention.

Herald 18th Aug 2025,
https://www.heraldscotland.com/news/25394175.mod-urged-publish-full-details-faslane-incident/

August 18, 2025 Posted by Christina Macpherson | secrets,lies and civil liberties, UK | Leave a comment

Unproven and costly: Nuclear Waste Dump ‘Red’ Rated as Unachievable.

NFLA 18th Aug 2025, https://www.nuclearpolicy.info/news/unproven-and-costly-nuclear-waste-dump-red-rated-as-unachievable/

A leading Government body charged with responsibility for monitoring the delivery of major taxpayer funded infrastructure projects has just published a report in which the plan to develop a subterranean Geological Disposal Facility to hold Britain’s legacy and future high-level radioactive waste has been ‘Red’ rated as ‘unachievable’.

The GDF was previously rated ‘Amber’ in an assessment by the Infrastructure and Projects Authority published in January of this year[i], signifying that: ‘Successful delivery appears feasible, but significant issues already exist, requiring management attention. These appear resolvable at this stage and, if addressed promptly, should not present a cost/schedule overrun.’

But in a report just published by the National Infrastructure and Service Transformation Authority (NISTA), a new body formed by the Labour Government[ii], the GDF is now instead ‘Red’ rated indicating that: ‘Successful delivery of the project appears to be unachievable. There are major issues with project definition, schedule, budget, quality and/or benefits delivery, which at this stage do not appear to be manageable or resolvable. The project may need re-scoping and/or its overall viability reassessed.’

The UK/Ireland Nuclear Free Local Authorities were unsurprised to hear the news. When contacted by New Civil Engineer for a quote, NFLA Secretary Richard Outram said:

“The NISTA Red rating is hardly surprising. The GDF process is fraught with uncertainties and the GDF ‘solution’ remains unproven and costly. A single facility, as estimated by government sources, could cost the taxpayer between £20-54 billion, but this being a nuclear project it is much more likely to be the latter and beyond.’

Government policy for the Geological Disposal Facility is predicated upon finding a project development site that is publicly acceptable, geologically ‘suitable’ and affordable.

So far, the first two of these hurdles have proven problematic to jump for the taxpayer funded body charged with finding a site and developing the facility. Nuclear Waste Services has being forced to retreat from South Holderness and Theddlethorpe in the face of steadfast public opposition and obliged to withdraw from Allerdale citing a lack of suitable geology.

Consequently, NWS is once more now limited to the pursuit of a site in Mid and South Copeland in West Cumbria. Both areas adjoin the beautiful Lake District National Park. They were previously the focus of failed attempts to impose a GDF, but the geology was found unsuitable, and the opposition of Cumbria County Council ended the process.

Resistance is growing to a GDF in South Copeland. Local people have formed an opposition group; two local Councils have condemned the plan and withdrawn their support from the process; and a review of the Community Partnership found it to be in disarray with factional infighting.

It is therefore not inconceivable that plans for a GDF in South Copeland could also soon be shelved.

Now Radiation Free Lakeland / Lakes against the Dump is gathering signatures from Cumbrians on a petition calling on Cumberland County Councillors to debate and vote upon their continued engagement with the GDF process. Once 1,000 County residents have signed the petition, the Council’s constitution provides for such a debate to be held in response.

Here are links to the petition: www.change.org/CumbriaNuclearDump https://www.change.org/p/massive-mine-shafts-and-nuclear-dump-for-cumbria-coast-tell-cumberland-council-vote-now

August 18, 2025 Posted by Christina Macpherson | UK, wastes | Leave a comment

Judicial review sought at High Court into flood barriers.

16th August, By Dominic Bareham, Geographic Specialist Reporter, https://www.eadt.co.uk/news/25391172.judicial-review-sought-high-court-flood-barriers/

Campaigners fighting the new Sizewell C nuclear power station have been granted a hearing in the High Court.

Together Against Sizewell C (TASC) is seeking a judicial review into plans for additional sea defences as part of the project.

The action group is calling for Sizewell C’s development consent order, granted in 2022, to be revoked or varied.

A judge at the High Court will hear TASC’s representatives claim project developer, power firm EDF, kept plans for the flood barriers secret in order to avoid scrutiny.

A decision would then be made on whether to grant a judicial review hearing, which would take place at a later date.

A TASC spokesperson said: “Sizewell C’s attempt to avoid scrutiny of these additional sea defences now means the project is proceeding without its full environmental impact having been assessed, this being in contravention of the UK Habitat Regulations.

“Sizewell C clearly believe they can do as they see fit with our heritage coast, national landscape and designated wildlife sites irrespective of the damage they will cause – this government, the largest shareholder in Sizewell C, must be challenged on this.”

TASC believe that the barriers were omitted from the original planning application that was granted development consent and fear that their construction could disrupt nearby wildlife habitats.

The campaigners would like less invasive flood barrier options to be pursued.

TASC has lost previous judicial reviews into the new station, which is set to cost £38 billion, including in June 2023 when the High Court rejected a legal challenge over the disposal of nuclear waste and the provision of a water supply.

In 2022, a similar legal challenge claiming the development was unlawful because of concerns about the maintenance of a water supply, was also rejected.

August 18, 2025 Posted by Christina Macpherson | Legal, UK | Leave a comment

Serious nuclear incident’ took place at Scottish Navy base

14 Aug 25, https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2025/08/14/serious-nuclear-incident-clyde-faslane-navy-base/

MoD admits ‘Category A’ event at HMNB Clyde which will raise concerns about maintenance of Trident nuclear submarines

‘Potentially serious’ event at HMNB Clyde prompts concerns about maintenance of Trident submarines

Category A events are defined as those which carry “actual or high potential for radioactive release to the environment”.

The revelation will raise serious concerns about how the Trident nuclear submarines in Scotland are being maintained. It is also likely to prompt questions over transparency and why the incident was not known about until now.

HMNB Clyde houses every Royal Navy submarine, including the Vanguard-class vessels which are armed with Trident missiles.

On Wednesday afternoon, the SNP demanded an urgent explanation from the Labour Government in Westminster over a “catalogue of failures” including separate contamination nearby.

The MoD declined to offer specific details of the incident, which was first reported by the Helensburgh Advertiser. This means it was unclear if any radiation was leaked into the environment or if there was a risk of this taking place.

The incident is not the first category A incident to take place at Faslane, with the MoD having reported two such cases from 2006 to 2007 and a third that took place in 2023.

The incident was disclosed in a written parliamentary answer by Maria Eagle, the procurement minister, after she was asked to provide the number of Nuclear Site Event Reports (NSERs) at the Coulport and Faslane naval bases.

She said there had been one category A event at Faslane between Jan 1 and April 22, two category B, seven category C and four category D. A further five events were deemed to be “below scale”, meaning they were less serious.

Nearby Coulport, where the UK’s nuclear missiles and warheads are stored, had four category C and nine category D events over the same period.

Ms Eagle told Dave Doogan, the SNP MP who tabled the question: “I cannot provide specific detail for the events as disclosure would, or would be likely to, prejudice the capability, effectiveness or security of any relevant forces.

“I can assure the honourable member that none of the events listed in question 49938 caused harm to the health of any member of staff or to any member of the public and none have resulted in any radiological impact to the environment.”

She also said that NSERs “are raised to foster a robust safety culture that learns from experience, whether that is equipment failures, human error, procedural failings, documentation shortcoming or near-misses”.

Category B incidents are defined as having “actual or high potential for a contained release within [a] building or submarine or unplanned exposure to radiation”.

Category C incidents have “moderate potential for future release”, while category D incidents are unlikely to prompt any release but “may contribute towards an adverse trend”.

Radioactive water leak

It emerged last week that radioactive water from the Coulport and Faslane bases, which are situated near Glasgow, was allowed to leak into the sea after several old pipes burst.

The substance was released into Loch Long because the Royal Navy inadequately maintained a network of around 1,500 pipes on the base, a regulator found.

The Scottish Environment Protection Agency, the pollution watchdog north of the border, found up to half the components at the base were beyond their design life.

David Cullen, a nuclear weapons expert at the Basic defence think tank, said attempts to hide previous serious incidents from the public had been “outrageous”.

Mr Cullen said: “The MoD is almost 10 years into a nearly £2bn infrastructure programme at Faslane and Coulport, and yet they apparently didn’t have a proper asset management system as recently as 2022.

“This negligent approach is far too common in the nuclear weapons programme, and is a direct consequence of a lack of oversight.”

Government accused of ‘cover-up’

Keith Brown, the deputy leader of the SNP, accused the Government of a cover-up in relation to the incident at Faslane.

Mr Brown said: “Nuclear weapons are an ever-present danger and this new information is deeply worrying.

“With repeated reports of serious incidents at Faslane and now confirmed radioactive contamination in Loch Long, it’s clear these weapons are not only poorly maintained but are a direct threat to our environment, our communities, and our safety.

“Worse still, the Labour Government is refusing to provide any details about the category A incident, or the full extent of the contamination, including who could potentially be affected.”

The SNP has vowed to scrap Trident, despite consensus in Westminster and among defence experts that the world is now more dangerous than at any point since the Cold War.

The accusations over a cover-up come after The Telegraph disclosed last month that Britain had secretly offered asylum to almost 24,000 Afghan soldiers and their families.

The Government earmarked £7bn to relocate Afghans to the UK over five years after they were caught up in the most serious data breach in history.

Despite enormous costs to the taxpayer, the breach was kept secret from the public for 683 days by two successive governments after the first use of a super-injunction by ministers.

An MoD spokesman said: “We place the upmost importance on handling radioactive substances safely and securely. Nuclear Site Event Reports demonstrate our robust safety culture and commitment to learn from experience.

“The incidents posed no risk to the public and did not result in any radiological impact to the environment. It is factually incorrect to suggest otherwise. Our Government backs our nuclear deterrent as the ultimate guarantor of our national security.

The MoD said it was unable to disclose details of individual incidents for “national security reasons”. However, it is understood all the NSERs were categorised as having a “low safety significance”.

August 17, 2025 Posted by Christina Macpherson | incidents, UK | Leave a comment

Rolls-Royce making fortune from ‘untested new nuclear market’.

Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament condemns the firm’s plans for AI-assisted small modular reactors

14 August 2025, Morning Star

ROLLS-ROYCE has been accused of making a fortune out of a “toxic, untested new nuclear market” over plans to power artificial intelligence (AI) with small modular reactors (SMRs).

The Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament (CND) made the comments after the engineering firm’s chief executive Tufan Erginbilgic claimed that its plans to power energy-intensive AI with its nuclear reactors could make it Britain’s most valuable company.

“There is no private company in the world with the nuclear capability we have. If we are not market leader globally, we did something wrong,” he told the BBC.

SMRs are smaller and quicker to build than traditional nuclear plants, but the technology remains unproven.

Rolls-Royce has already supplied SMRs to power dozens of nuclear submarines and has signed a deal to develop six for the Czech Republic while developing three for Britain.

“SMRs are an absolute disaster,” said CND general secretary Sophie Bolt. “Should a working model actually be built, they will produce far more toxic radioactive waste than regular nuclear reactors.

“Rolls-Royce is making a fortune out of this toxic, untested new nuclear market.

“We are bombarded with plans to rapidly expand nuclear sites across the country, but there is still no plan for what to do with the toxic waste generated or deal with legacy waste.

“Britain and its workers need a new green deal, one that leaves nuclear in the 20th century, and puts genuine renewables and anti-militarism at the heart of its security strategy.

“This has been outlined in the Alternative Defence Review, a report supported by CND and the RMT union, which acts as a roadmap for this transition which puts workers at the heart of change.”…………………………………………(Subscribers only)

August 17, 2025 Posted by Christina Macpherson | business and costs, UK | Leave a comment

Government faces calls to investigate Faslane nuclear leak.

Revelations of radioactive leaks from Trident’s base were branded “as
shocking as they are unsurprising” today as the government faced calls to
urgently investigate.

Scottish Environmental Protection Agency (SEPA)
documents obtained by The Ferret revealed that the watchdog was aware of
the 2019 discharge of radioactive water from the home of Britain’s
nuclear arsenal at Faslane and Coulport — just 30 miles from Glasgow,
Scotland’s most populous city — into Loch Long, citing the cause as the
Royal Navy’s failure to properly maintain a network of 1,500 pipes.

Scottish CND executive member David Kelly told the Star: “The failures in
pipework at Coulport, and the subsequent release of nucleotides into Loch
Long are as shocking as they are unsurprising. “‘How cheaply can we run
a nuclear arsenal’ seems to be the Ministry of Defence’s (MoD) approach
to this most deadly of facilities. “All mechanical components, as complex
as a nuclear submarine, or as simple as a pipe, are designed for a specific
life.

Morning Star 12th Aug 2025, https://morningstaronline.co.uk/article/government-faces-calls-investigate-faslane-nuclear-leak

August 17, 2025 Posted by Christina Macpherson | environment, UK | Leave a comment

Legal challenge against nuclear site’s water plans

Federica Bedendo, BBC News, North East and Cumbria, 13 Aug 25,
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c987e11393ko

An environmental activist is lodging a legal challenge against plans from the UK’s largest nuclear plant to remove water from its site.

Marianne Birkby, campaigner for Lakes Against Nuclear Dump (LAND), is contesting a decision by the Environment Agency (EA) to give Sellafield permission to extract water from its Cumbrian plant – a process needed to build a new storage facility for radioactive waste.

Ms Birkby fears the process would produce contaminated water, which would be discharged into the nearby Calder and Ehen rivers.

The EA said it had considered all the potential impacts on the environment before giving permission. Sellafield said the water would not be discharged in the rivers.

Ms Birkby is working with environmental lawyers Leigh Day, who have warned the EA of their intention to pursue a judicial review.

The licence to abstract water was granted to Sellafield in May.

It is part of a wider project to build the second of four new units to store waste to support the site’s decommissioning operations.

Sellafield said the water would have to be extracted when the ground was dug up to build the new facility, and the water removed would mostly be from rainfall.

“Removing water from a construction site is standard practice when preparing land for a building project,” a spokesman said.

They added: “The water is pumped to on-site storage tanks where it is tested prior to being discharged direct to sea.”

Fears for rivers

Ms Birkby said she feared the environment would “bear the brunt” of the operations, which she said could impact the endangered freshwater pearl mussel population present in the Ehen.

“No-one begrudges Sellafield repackaging leaking nuclear wastes from the Magnox silos, but this should not be at the further expense of Cumbria’s rivers and groundwaters,” she said.

She added she believed the EA should have required Sellafield to provide a hydrological impact assessment, but the EA said it did not believe that was needed.

“In this case, we did not require a hydrological risk assessment because we consider that the application will not affect any site of nature conservation, significant landscape or heritage, protected species or habitat,” a EA spokesman said.

The licence granted to Sellafield would allow the company to extract up to 350,400 cubic metres (77,077,224 gallons) of water a year until 2031.

Nuclear Free Local Authorities, which represents about 25 councils who are against civil nuclear power, has also written to the EA to raise concerns about the permit.

“We are concerned that the proposal will involve nearly one million litres of contaminated water being discharged into the River Calder and out into the sea every day for an unknown length of time,” they said.

A EA spokesman said: “When we receive water abstraction license applications we take into consideration all the potential impacts on the environment before determining whether to issue a licence.”

August 17, 2025 Posted by Christina Macpherson | Legal, UK | Leave a comment

Geological disposal facility for nuclear waste could cost £54bn and ‘appears unachievable’.

15 Aug, 2025 By Tom Pashby

The UK government’s proposed solution for long-term storage of high-level waste from the nuclear sector, a geological disposal facility (GDF), has been described as “unachievable” in a Treasury assessment of the project.

The National Infrastructure and Service
Transformation Authority (Nista), a Treasury unit, made the assessment in
its Nista Annual Report 2024-2025, published on 11 August, where it rated
213 other major infrastructure projects.

A GDF represents a monumental
undertaking, consisting of an engineered vault placed between 200m and 1km
underground, covering an area of approximately 1km2 on the surface. This
facility is designed to safely contain nuclear waste while allowing it to
decay over thousands of years, thereby reducing its radioactivity and
associated hazards. NWS declares that this method offers the most secure
solution for managing the UK’s nuclear waste, aimed at relieving future
generations of the burden of storage.

The project would be so vast that it
would require two separate development consent order (DCO) applications to
be approved – one for exploratory works and another for the project
itself. Nuclear Free Local Authorities secretary Richard Outram said:
“The Nista Red rating is hardly surprising. The GDF process is fraught
with uncertainties and the GDF ‘solution’ remains unproven and costly.
“A single facility as estimated by government sources could cost the
taxpayer between £20bn and £54bn, this being a nuclear project it is much
more likely to be the latter and beyond.”

New Civil Engineer 15th Aug 2025, https://www.newcivilengineer.com/latest/geological-disposal-facility-for-nuclear-waste-could-cost-54bn-and-appears-unachievable-15-08-2025/

August 16, 2025 Posted by Christina Macpherson | UK, wastes | Leave a comment

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