THE Ministry of Defence was under fire last night after it emerged Scotland is to be used as a testbed for the dismantling of nuclear submarines.
Rosyth has been chosen as a demonstration site for the removal of reactors and other radioactive components, sparking a backlash from the SNP and anti-nuclear campaigners.
In total, 27 submarines are to be dismantled at British naval bases, with the nuclear waste buried in new dumps.
They include HMS Conqueror, the vessel that sank the Belgrano during the Falklands War in 1982, and which is now mouldering at Devonport in southwest England.
A new MoD report states that a nuclear vessel moored at Rosyth will shortly be cut up. If there are no problems, six submarines at the Fife dockyard will be taken apart.
The disclosure has prompted fresh concern that Rosyth could become a dump for radioactive waste including from south of the border.
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The plans for Rosyth are part of the MoD’s response to a four-month public consultation on dismantling its nuclear submarines which ended last year.
It states: “The first submarine will be dismantled at Rosyth as a demonstration of the radioactive waste removal process. The rate and order of dismantling the remaining submarines, at both Rosyth and Devonport, will then be optimised. Priority will be given to clearing the seven submarines currently at Rosyth, but this does not preclude the potential for parallel work in Devonport.”
The report paves the way for a process to identify a site for the interim storage of intermediate level waste (ILW).
Douglas Chapman, SNP councillor for Rosyth, said: “I’m disappointed there is no commitment to removing the UK’s nuclear waste from Rosyth and that the MoD has changed the goalposts in that ILW could remain on site indefinitely instead of being taken for safe storage away from Scotland.”
Britain commissioned its first nuclear submarine, HMS Dreadnought, in 1963 and it stayed in service till 1980. The submarine, still with an intensely radioactive reactor vessel, is sitting in Rosyth.
Since then it has been joined by about 17 other decommissioned nuclear submarines, including four of the ballistic missile vessels that held Polaris intercontinental missiles. Other submarines due for decommissioning soon will bring the total to at least 27.
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Such vessels present huge problems for the MoD. Perhaps the biggest is their size, with reactor compartments that weigh around 800 tonnes and reactor pressure vessels, the most radioactive part, weighing 70 tonnes. Normally these would be cut up into smaller parts but the age of many of the submarines means the radioactive contamination has spread. Some are suspected of having radiation leaching into the air.
John Large, an expert in nuclear waste disposal, said: “Up until 1996, the navy planned to simply scuttle its old nuclear submarines, but nowadays that is unacceptable so they have a huge and expensive problem in how to deal with them. They have put it off for years and are now having to face the consequences.”
The MoD does not need permission to dispose of its radioactive waste in Scotland although the manner of disposal will have to be agreed with the Scottish Environment Protection Agency (Sepa). A Sepa spokeswoman said: “Now that Rosyth has been selected, we will require any radioactive waste generated at Rosyth to be properly disposed of.”
Pete Roche, policy adviser to the Nuclear Free Local Authorities group, said: “Before anything happens the MoD must find a site for a nuclear waste store. No one wants to live next door to a waste dump and there is no guarantee Rosyth will not be chosen.”