By IRNA,
London : Europe’s largest single issue peace organisation is warning the British government against plans to use a naval dockyard base as a centre for dismantling radioactive submarines.
The Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament (CND) has voiced concern about the safety record of Devonport dockyard in south-west England and its position in the middle of Plymouth city as being inappropriate site as a ‘nuclear dumping ground.’
“A city-centre location is no place to cut-up and store redundant nuclear submarines,” said CND chair Kate Hudson.
“The toxic legacy of these subs is a real problem, but dismantling them on a site literally a couple of hundred metres from homes and schools must not be allowed,” Hudson said.
“The health risks posed by a project that could continue for 60 years or more are potentially enormous, with Devonport already having a troubled history of radioactive leaks,” she warned.
The dockyard is already home to eight ageing nuclear submarines and plans are for another 27 to be sent there, prompting fears that one of the country’s busiest naval ports is set to be turned into a nuclear scrapyard.
The Ministry of Defence (MoD) admits it will run out of storage space for the redundant nuclear subs by 2020 and has put forward plans to begin dismantling the radioactive hulks at site in the middle of the city’s 250,000 population.
Two options have been pit forward to either cut up the nuclear reactors into small pieces and packed into “suitable containers” or to store the reactors in compartments to be cut up at a later date.
According to the Guardian newspaper, Rear admiral Simon Lister, director general of submarines, has insisted that no decision has yet been made but admits that Devonport is one of the sites being considered.
“We fully appreciate that the views of the public must be considered in this process, which is why the MoD will consult widely on the location for the initial dismantling of submarines, and on the location for the storage of the resultant radioactive waste,” Lister said.
Devonport, which is also used to refuel nuclear reactors on functioning submarines, has suffered a number of nuclear accidents over the past decade.
The latest incident in March last year included radioactive water escaping from a submarine’s discharge system, while 280 litres of radioactive liquid escaped after a hose burst in November 2008 in the worst nuclear spill in over 20 years.