NUCLEAR SUBMARINE RISK TO ANDALUSIA
The British government's proposal to repair a nuclear submarine in Gibraltar is a risk to the people of Andalusia. There was a serious reactor accident on HMS Tireless near Sicily on 12th May and there are plans to repair it in Gibraltar, despite opposition from 80 per cent of the local population.
The Royal Navy has two types of berths for nuclear submarines:
A Z berth can only be used for occasional visits, the Navy says in its own rules that a reactor cannot be repaired at a Z berth.
An X berth can be used for reactor repairs. The risk of a nuclear accident occurring is much higher and preparations have to be in place for dealing with a major nuclear accident.
Gibraltar is a Z berth and the preparations have not been made for a serious accident. But they are now planning to repair a damaged nuclear submarine there.
One of the main nuclear bases is at Faslane in Scotland. The Navy plans for dealing with an accident there say that preparations have to be made for areas as far as 10 kilometres from the submarine berths. Within this 10 km area the Ministry of Defence "advises local planners to consider the production of outline contingency plans .. to provide the basis for the further extension of countermeasures." These countermeasures including being ready to distribute Potassium Iodate Tablets, which can reduce the risk of thyroid cancer, particularly amongst children. They also include planning how to tell the local population to take shelter. In the case of Gibraltar this 10 km zone would include a large area in Andalusia, including the towns of La Linea and Algeciras.
During the accident on HMS Tireless the coolant pipe cracked and coolant under very high pressure escaped from the reactor. There had been a major inspection of the reactor in 1999, but this crack was not detected, so there could be other cracks elsewhere in the reactor which were not detected. There could also be damage to other areas of the reactor resulting from the accident.
If the Navy goes ahead and repairs the submarine in Gibraltar, then at the end of the repair they will test the reactor. This will be particularly dangerous. According to the Navy's rules these reactor trials should only be done at an X berth. The trials are the main reason that the Navy consider a nuclear accident to be more likely at an X berth than at a Z berth.
The Captain of HMS Tireless, Mike Hawthorne, has said "What we have is a leaking pipe, you could put your finger over it to stop the leak." This certainly couldn't be done once the reactor is running again. The submarine has a Pressurised Water Reactor. When it is producing power the water in the reactor is at very high pressure (170 bar), and also very hot (around 300 C). The idea that anyone could stop it escaping with their finger is preposterous.
The Navy's own manuals say that a reactor accident could affect people 10 kms from the submarine. Scottish CND has also calculated the effect of a more serious type of accident, in which the containment of the reactor fails completely. An accident of this type could seriously affect people living 100 kms from HMS Tireless. It should be remembered that the Chernobyl reactor scattered radiation all across Europe.
John Ainslie
Scottish CND
23 August 2000