By KUNA
London : A hole has been discovered in the hull of a decommissioned nuclear submarine, the British Ministry of Defence (MoD) revealed Thursday.
The hole, about the size of a fist, was found during routine checks on “HMS Revenge”, berthed in the Firth of Forth, in Scotland.
The breach was discovered last February and was in one of six external ballast tanks of the Polaris submarine at Rosyth Dockyard, the Edinburgh Evening News, newspaper reported.
It was immediately sealed by Navy engineers, the paper said.
As the submarine is decommissioned it no longer contains any nuclear parts, the MoD said.
An MoD spokesman added “There are no nuclear safety concerns”.
But the Scottish National Party MP Angus Robertson, also the party’s defence spokesman, demanded assurances there was “no threat to public or environmental safety”.
“This is an extremely unsettling incident, and underlines the British Government’s failure to come up with a safe way to dispose of these redundant submarines”, he said.
“This disturbing incident has exposed a gaping hole in the British Government’s strategy for disposing of these submarines, and ministers must now take action”, he added.
The MoD spokesman said “HMS Revenge is one of seven decommissioned submarines at Rosyth Dockyard. She has been stabilised, the pressure hull of the submarine has not been breached and there is no immediate danger to the rest of the structure”.
“As the submarine has been defuelled, there are no nuclear safety concerns”, the spokesman concluded.