Campaigners opposed to nuclear fission on an industrial and military scale long suspected that the techniques and working practices involved were flawed and potentially dangerous to public health, current and long term. In the culture of institutional secrecy, covertly supported and promoted by government, it was always extremely difficult to obtain clear and correct information for mounting effective monitoring and opposition.
In 1985 a lengthy Public Enquiry to examine objections to the proposed building of a European Demonstration and Reprocessing Plant (EDRP) at Dounreay was held. Actually it was technically the same procedure used if a citizen objected to planning permission for a neighbour’s garden shed, but on a hugely inflated scale, involving months of evidence, Queen’s Counsel lawyers and quasi - courtroom procedure. Its findings, moreover, were not to be binding on government. Coincidentally, it was during this enquiry that the Chernobyl disaster happened. Eventually permission was granted for the EDRP, subject to provisos, but it was never built, mainly for economic reasons. On the introduction of electricity privatisation proposals it quickly became obvious that the nuclear generation sector would have to be excluded from the asset sale, as City investors were not deceived as to its economic non-viability.
During the 1990’s facts have emerged concerning Dounreay’s plant management inadequacies, because of the persistence of campaigners such as SAND (Scotland Against Nuclear Dumping) and increased media awareness of the dangers.
ECO played a small part in this by hosting a large successful public meeting in Kirkwall in which the Dounreay management team of five gave a presentation, amid searching questioning, followed later by another meeting addressed by SAND’s Lorraine Mann for the campaigners.
The Threats at Dounreay
Actually, this title is taken from the very informative
and readable article to be found on the website of the N-Base Information Service provided
by NENIG (Northern European Nuclear Information Group): see http://www.zetnet.co.uk/oigs/n-base/dounreay.htm.
Dounreay: Half-Lives, Half-Truths
And this title is taken from another extremely useful
source of information, which is structured as a series of historical dates from 1954, when
the plans for the Dounreay experimental reactor were announced by the government, running
up to 2001, and concluding with a brief overview of the current situation. To read this
article on the website of Friends of the Earth Scotland see http://www.foe-scotland.org.uk/nation/dounreay.html.In light of the disturbing facts revealed on these websites there is every reason why concern should be felt in Orkney about the environment in relation to the all too close proximity of the Dounreay Nuclear Establishment.
ECO is opposed to any resorting to the development of nuclear power generation as part of the British Government’s commitment to renewable energy targets. Renewable should also imply sustainable, and it is our belief that nuclear power generation cannot be regarded as sustainable as long as it involves the production of toxic radioactive waste for which there is no known safe method of disposal.
It is also a source of concern that there is no apparent environmental monitoring for the radioactive contamination of the Orkney environment. We have been told that there is monitoring undertaken by the local authority, but we are not aware of any published results of this. Radioactive contamination can come from Dounreay, Sellafield, or even from such events as the Chernobyl disaster. It is known that radioactive particles from Sellafield have been identified in Norway, and this bears the logical implication that they could also exist in Orkney. It is part of ECO’s intention to try to discover the nature, extent, and results of radioactive monitoring carried out by the local authority in Orkney.
C.S.
